


Home

by GlueDew



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gang Violence, Gun Violence, Homelessness, political corruption
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-10
Updated: 2015-10-10
Packaged: 2018-04-25 19:08:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 8
Words: 43,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4972891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlueDew/pseuds/GlueDew
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU. Naruto Uzumaki is a homeless boy on the streets of big city Konoha, trying to bring justice while being hunted for a crime he didn't commit. A new police officer comes to investigate the theft of the priceless diamond artifacts, the Tailed Beasts, but ends up getting caught in a web of corruption and violence as his fate and Naruto's become relentlessly intertwined. No pairings, rated for some violence and brief mentions of non-con.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Home

 

_Prologue_

 

 

It was raining lightly, enough to dampen clothes and sprinkle eyeglasses, but not quite enough to form puddles. The sun was hiding behind a thin blanket of gray, the whole city engulfed in shadow.

_He knew he should head home. It was getting dark, not to mention that his parents would be worried sick. Scratch that. His mother and his stepfather would be concerned. Scratch that. His mother wouldn't be home and her bastard boyfriend wouldn't give two shits._

A screen door was pushed open with enough force to make it smack the outside wall and bounce back, but the preteen had already run through. People were yelling. The boy’s cerulean eyes were wild and terrified and as damp as the grass beneath his boots, rapidly flickering back and forth in search of somewhere to go, anywhere. He clutched the thin coat tightly around his body with one hand, the other securing the old brown newsboy cap on his head as he sped off.

_Still, he knew that he shouldn't hang around the park alone at night. His friends had gone home ages ago, leaving him to wallow on the swings, wasting time. Ultimately, he stood up and shook his spiky yellow hair, sprinkling bits of water on the ground._

_Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he hunched his shoulders and started towards the house. It was just a house, not his home, not since his mom's boyfriend moved in, and never again would it be until the man left._

At first he ran as fast as his shaking legs could carry him, but eventually his pace slowed as his stamina was drained until he was reduced to a trot. To the passerby, he was just another middle schooler hurrying home in the rain, barely worth a glance.

_He was surprised to find the front door unlocked. His mom's boyfriend was a piggish man, but meticulous about security, always grunting about how burglars would break in and steal the tv, not to mention the stash of money he kept behind it._

_The man kept a gun under his bed in case anyone should try breaking and entering on their house. But that was a lie. He kept it as incentive for following orders._

The boy’s eyes were blurry from unshed tears, warping the images around him. The people going past looked like they were trapped in funhouse mirrors, and the ground curved beneath him. Too caught up in blind panic, he didn't stop to talk to anyone, which was just as well because they ignored him.

_Peeking inside, he noted how quiet and dark it was, like the calm before a storm. Gulping, he stepped inside, fumbling around for the light switch. Thankfully real life isn’t a horror movie where the lights mysteriously don’t work, and the kitchen lamp flickered on._

_He pulled his coat off and hung it up on the rack next to the door. It was remarkably quiet. He left his boots on. Moving slowly around the kitchen table, he peered down the hall._

_The bathroom and his bedroom doors were closed, as usual, but his mother's room at the end of the hall was open a few inches, allowing a ray of shallow light shine through._

The rain was becoming heavier and thicker now, accompanied by shallow flashes of lightning and low rumbles of thunder. Turning into a narrow alley, he stopped next to a dumpster that reeked of trash, both artificial and human.

There was probably a body inside, like on the news the other day. Murders were common in Konoha, the unsolved ones outnumbering the solved ones by an embarrassing amount. Thinking of dead bodies made the boy clench his fists and squeeze his eyes shut.

_He knew that he should probably just slip quietly into his own room and block the door with a chair, but his blasted curiosity got the better of him. Trying not to think of the phrase 'Curiosity killed the cat', he slowly, silently approached the open door._

_Stopping at the crack, he looked inside but saw no one. “Mom?” He pushed the door open, wincing as it creaked, only to freeze when he saw the back of his mother's boyfriend, knelt beside the bed._

_“S-sorry, I didn’t—”He froze as the man turned, and his eyes shifted from the man's surprised face to the arm sticking out from under the bed._

By now, the blond boy was soaked, rain water dripping off the spikes of his hair and the brim of his hat. Tears flowed freely from his shiny blue eyes as he pulled his knees up to his chest and covered his face with his arms.

Body shaking with sobs, he stifled anguished cries. Now that he had had time to slow down his panicked system, the pain in his shoulder returned. He clutched at the wound, feeling the outside of his coat wet with something other than rain.

_The fingers on the hand were slender and pale, nails painted a delicate lavender, but also caked with blood. A flurry of emotions flashed across the man’s face— surprise, apprehension, fury. He slowly stood up, wiping his own bloody hands down the front of his cleverly colored red shirt._

_Not taking his eyes off the boy in the doorway, he set his face in a grim expression and moved with surprising swiftness over to the door. The boy tried to move back, unable to speak for his fear, but his arm was caught by the murderer, who forcefully yanked him into the room and threw him at the bed._

_The boy caught himself on the side but tripped over the protruding arm and fell to the floor, bumping into the side dresser with the lamp. Now having a view underneath the bed, his tearful blue eyes met the glazed green eyes of his mother._

Suddenly a police siren sounded, causing the boy to abruptly silence his sobs and look up, eyes wide. The siren got louder as it approached and an icy feeling of panic spread through him. Scrambling unsteadily to his feet, he raced down the alley, soaking his legs further as he splashed through all the newly-formed puddles.

The sirens echoed down the alley, harshly ringing in his ears. His only thought was of escape, instinct taking over intellect.

_His mother's boyfriend snarled at him, but the pounding in the boy's ears blocked out the sounds. He back up against the wall, looking around wildly for some sort of weapon._

_Then, stupidly, he watched, paralyzed, as the man reached for something on the bed— the gun. If the boy's eyes had stretched any wider, they would have fallen out of his head. The man casually aimed the gun at the boy's head, sure that his fear would keep him in place._

_However, fear drove him out of it. As the trigger pulled, he scrambled to the right, crying out from the seemingly huge explosion and the pain as the bullet grazed his left shoulder._

He raced through side alleys and streets, trying to escape the sound of the pursuing sirens. A dark, dilapidated building loomed in front of him, the windows and doors blocked with wooden planks.

The bricks appeared to have survived some sort of explosion, and every single window was left with a spidery crack running up it, if it wasn't completely shattered. One of the first story windows hadn't been completely covered, leaving a small space that a smaller person could climb through.

Being exactly that sort of small person, the boy looked around cautiously before squeezing through the narrow space, cutting his hands on the shards of glass. At once, he was met with darkness.

_With adrenalin pushing back the pain, the blond boy grabbed the lamp off the bedside table and hurled it at the man before he had a chance to reload the gun. He clearly wasn't expecting retaliation, and was therefore quite surprised when the lamp crashed into him._

_He was knocked backwards, barely managing to maintain his balance, letting out a menacing growl. The boy, realizing this was his only chance, leaped at the man while he was precariously balanced, causing them both to fall to the ground in a wrestling fit; the man’s grip on the gun had loosened, and the boy struggled to pull it away._

_With twenty fingers trying to yank the gun in different directions, one had pushed the trigger. The BANG was followed by a stunned silence. Blood trickled out of the hole in the larger man's cheek as his eye rolled back._

Once his eyes had adjusted, he looked around the room he had entered. It was gray in the little light that filtered in, with pale spaces on the walls and floor where objects had sat for a long time before being pulled out.

However, there were still a few broken chairs and a small, sad table propped up by a large yellowed book. He suspected that someone had lived here for a while, but they must have gone judging by the thick layer of dust.

Now that the walls and half-boarded window blocked out the screaming sirens and dulled the drumming rain, the boy fell against the wall, slipping down to sit.

_The boy threw the gun down and crawled away, disbelieving. Stunned and staring like a deer in headlights, he jumped out of his skin when the phone rang from the hallway. He gaped dumbly at the contraption as it rang before gingerly scuttling over the body and reaching for the phone with a shaky hand. He held it to his ear and pressed his back against the wall, still too shocked to speak. "Hello?" called the person on the other line. "This is Mrs. Yamanaka. What's going on there? I heard a gunshot. I called the police… hello? What's happening?"_

_The person spoke very quickly, obviously flustered, and the boy tried to explain. His mouth moved, but no sound came out, except for a hoarse "I-I…" He dropped the phone on the floor, ignoring the "Hello? Hello?" and dashing out of the room, leaving the gun where he had dropped it._

_He'd killed his mother's boyfriend. Not that he had been a good man, far from it, but it was still murder. And his mother… dead. His fingerprints on the gun. His school delinquency record. More thoughts flashed through his brain. The police were coming, coming to catch him, to take him to jail. He heard about what happened in jail. Heart beating faster than he could ever remember, he ran into his bedroom._

_He couldn't take much, only something very important. Snatching his wallet off his dresser, he was about to exit when his eye caught on a hat._

Squeezing some water out of his drenched yellow hair, he pulled off his brown hat, pausing to read the inside label. In faded permanent marker, someone had long ago written "M.N." Those initials were the hope he had held on to ever since he found the old newsboy cap in the back of the coat closet, hope that had become his reason for living after his mother's boyfriend had moved in.

The man made life living hell for both of them, but he somehow managed to bring in money, which was probably the only reason his mother hadn't kicked him out. Either that or the man had threatened her into letting him stay. Business before pleasure, or both at once in their case.

_Boots thumping on the cheap linoleum floor, he pulled his coat on, barely managing to find the armholes. He was in the process of stuffing gloves into his pockets when the sirens came. First they were in the distance, like a long forgotten howl, but soon enough they grew closer until it was comparable to the screaming of a tortured animal._

_The blue and red lights of police cars shined through the yellowed lace of the window curtains, lighting up Christmas patterns on the wall. Backing away from the front door, he quickly hurried to side door, which looked out on an alleyway where they took out the trash. Fumbling with the lock, he slammed the screen door open with too much force, sprinting out before the rebound hit him in the face._

_He could hear people yelling._


	2. The Poor Hospital

Chapter 1: The Poor Hospital

 

 

The trees were just turning orange, signifying the coming of autumn. Although no bitter winds blew yet, the air was steadily dropping in temperature. The citizens in the big city of Konoha had abandoned the days of tank tops and short shorts, instead moving on to jeans and sweatshirts, which would in turn be covered up by heavy winter coats and snow boots. Winter was harsh in Konoha; the snow piled high and storms were frequent, not to mention that schools almost always had days off because the buses wouldn’t start in the frigid temperatures.

No one knew the cruelness of the winters quite like Naruto Uzumaki, so he was enjoying the relative warmth of early autumn while it lasted. His badly patched orange pants were tucked into heavy boots, which were great for the large amounts of snow but could be a bit too hot for summer. Over a simple black turtleneck he wore his long tan coat, also rather poorly patched up, with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows. His clothes had seen better days, and now were only held together by botched sewing jobs with a colorful assortment of patches and the odd safety pin.

As it was still too hot for all his winter gear, his faded purple scarf poked out of one of the coat’s side pockets, as well as a pair of gloves; most of the fingertips were poked through.

One article that the blond always wore no matter what was his tattered old newsboy cap. The thing looked like it had been run over by a few cars in its lifetime, as it was covered in little rips and holes, some of which had been stitched shut. Even though it would probably be thrown away without a thought by anyone else, Naruto clung to it like his life depended on it.

One thing his life, or his _free_ life at least, actually did depend on was his ability to run. Naruto had always been interested in Parkour, the running art of getting from one place to another without diverging from your path— which means climbing walls and leaping cars. He used to race his school friends around the park, hurdling over benches and scrambling up swingsets, but he never thought he’d actually _need_ the skill.

Currently the blond was racing down a crowded street, trying his best to squeeze through the people walking in the opposite direction. He looked back over his flapping coattail to see two police officers hot in pursuit, not hesitating to push bystanders aside to reach their swift target.

“Stop running, or we’ll be forced to shoot!” one of the cops shouted, running a little ahead of his buddy. He had short spiky black hair mostly hid by his police cap, and a goatee that connected with his sideburns. Naruto couldn’t read his name tag, but he knew that his name was Asuma Sarutobi, the son of the mayor. But being the son of such a high figure hadn’t made him a spoiled brat, and he was probably one of the smartest officers around.

The other was Genma Shiranui, a quiet and collected man. He always had a toothpick sticking out of the side of his mouth, like he had been eating a large steak meal when he was called in. Naruto had never actually heard him speak, but Asuma seemed more than willing to make up for his partner’s silence.

Naruto faced forward again and yelled back, “You aren’t saying that little old me is faster than you, are you?” He smirked to himself. In a plain footrace, his scrawny body would no doubt fail him and the police, muscular and trained, would be on him in a few heartbeats, but this wasn’t a simple race. When it came to swerving through crowds and navigating newspaper boxes, his small body gave him the upper hand.

He added, “Besides, you wouldn’t shoot!” While they were brutes, Naruto knew that the two officers wouldn’t risk firing at him with their guns; there were far too many people about, and an accidental murder or injury was the last thing the police wanted.

He knew he should be worried about his rather irate pursuers, but he couldn’t help but flash them a wide grin, if only to make them angrier. Naruto knew that the two cops wouldn’t be able to catch him. He’d avoided them for years, and had quite a reputation. Apparently he was known amongst the police as the “Fox”, due to his ability to move swiftly and gracefully, almost animal-like. The orange pants probably contributed a little, too.

He reached a large cross street, the names labeled on the top of hefty traffic lights. There was a steady stream of cars darting back and forth, blocking the way for Naruto to cross. He supposed that he could try to dash across and do his best not to get squashed by a semi-truck, but decided it would be better for his health to turn the corner. There was a street lamp on the corner. Since he was traveling at a high speed, instead of trying to slow down and turn he reached out and grabbed the pole as he ran by, jumping and using it as a fulcrum to swing around the corner.

Landing lightly on his feet, he continued running. He looked back to see that the officers had slowed down at the corner and were trying to catch up, but to no avail. He was lost in the crowd.

Slipping into a side street, Naruto crouched behind a pile of cardboard boxes and waited silently, peeking through a hole to watch the sidewalk. Sure enough, the two men went speeding by, not even glancing down the narrow alley. Very pleased with himself, Naruto chuckled and got to his feet, continuing down the alley. He pulled small paper bag out of one of the many pockets on his coat. Inside was a fresh loaf of bread, which he had stolen that morning. That was how the police had found him. They still didn’t know of his hiding spot in the old abandoned paper mill next to the river, so whenever he needed to steal something, like food for example, he tried to find stores on the other side of town to throw the cops off his scent. While Naruto was a good pickpocket, downright snatching a loaf of bread without being noticed was pretty tough. He had thought he could quietly swipe the bag of bread from the counter when the customer moved to point out a couple cinnamon buns off to the side, but the baker had keen eyes and quick feet. Naruto barely made it out the door before the baker followed outside screaming at him, alerting the two cops writing parking tickets across the block.

He didn’t enjoy stealing, not just because it alerted the police to his position, but also because he felt bad about it. Somebody worked to bake this bread, and they deserved to be paid for it. His stomach growled loudly, as if to counter, “Yeah, but you deserve to not starve.”

Agreeing with his boisterous internal organ, he ripped off a piece of the soft bread and ate it, savoring the fresh taste as he walked casually down the side street, turning a few corners before exiting to find himself near the city park.

He put the half eaten loaf back in the bag and stuffed it in a pocket for later. Glancing around for any police cars, Naruto put his hands in his pockets as well and entered the park. For the most part it was just a grassy area with artfully planted trees scattered about, and a garden in the center. Off to the side was a playground for children; it seemed silly, since there was a playground at the elementary school a few blocks away as well, but he supposed some parents might like to have their kids close by while they went for a stroll through the gardens.

A familiar face caught his eye. He made his way over the grass to where the woman was seated on a bench, reading a heavy book. She didn’t seem to notice his approach— or she ignored him.

“Still reading those boring old things?” Naruto queried jokingly. The woman was wearing a low cut shirt showing off an impressive amount of cleavage, and her blond hair was tied in loose pigtails. Her amber eyes flickered up, fixing him with a skeptical look.

“Without these ‘boring old things’, you’d be lying on the streets with an amputated arm. At least now you’re lying on the streets with all your limbs,” she countered. Her tone was playful but not without a touch of seriousness.

Naruto’s hand moved unconsciously to his left shoulder, and he grinned. “Yeah, yeah. It’s a good thing you started that little hospital, huh? Well, it’s not really a hospital so much as, like, a shack with some scalpels and antiseptic.” He ducked to avoid a smack to the head.

“You don’t appreciate anything, do you? I’ve worked my breasts off to build that hospital up from nothing to give free medical care to those who can’t afford Konoha General. Prices are ridiculous these days. I mean, it can cost two thousand dollars for a woman to stay in the hospital overnight after giving birth— it’s completely unreasonable. And you think my free hospital is a waste? I shouldn’t have treated your sorry ass all those times you came in with injuries from God knows where. Let’s see how you like it when you have to pay five hundred dollars for me to stitch up your mysterious wounds.” She probably would have continued ranting about the unfairness of medical care these days and his ignorance towards the art of medicine, but Naruto held his hands up in a ‘wait wait’ motion.

“Geez, calm down, granny. You know I’m like really grateful for everything you’ve done for me; you don’t have to go on an angry rampage. In fact, I found something you might find useful.” Before she could yell at him for calling her granny, he reached into one of his breast pockets and pulled out a rusty but still workable stethoscope. “Someone was having a garage sale, and I’d found a five dollar bill on the ground earlier, so I got ‘em for you.” Naruto presented the small gift to Tsunade, who smiled warmly and took them, giving the tool a quick examination.

She folded them and stuck them in her bag before turning back to the blond boy, still smiling. Suddenly she reached up and punched him in the arm, causing him to jump in surprise and give an exclamation of “Ow, the hell?”

A frown replacing the smile, the doctor scolded, “Naruto, I know you meant well, but you should have used the money to buy yourself something to eat.”

“I already got that covered. A little five finger discounting,” he answered, pulling the bread bag half out of its pocket.

Tsunade’s eyes rolled in their sockets. “You stole that?! I thought you promised me you would stop!”

Backing away in case she tried to punch him again, his face became very guilty. “I don’t want to steal, you know. It’s sort of a necessity, but I don’t enjoy it. Besides, I only promised that I wouldn’t steal painkillers from you anymore. I never said anything about bread.” Crossing his arms, he turned away with a huff.

Knowing that she really shouldn’t, Tsunade pulled her wallet out. Upon opening it, she sifted through all the lottery tickets and scratch cards in search of some bills. She pulled out a ten, waving it at the blond teen. “Here, take it you brat.”

“No way. You’re just as broke as me, since you spend all your money on those stupid lottery tickets, which you’re never gonna win by the way. I’m not a charity case, and besides, I can’t take your money,” Naruto argued, glaring at the enticing bill.

Truthfully, he really needed it; winter was coming, and he had to save up money to buy medicine when he got sick.

“It’s not charity money; it’s payment for the stethoscope.” Tsunade stared defiantly at him, holding the bill out stubbornly.

Truthfully, she really needed the money as well. Running a free hospital wasn’t exactly a lucrative business, and like Naruto had pointed out, none of her tickets and scratch cards had yielded a substantial amount of money. Still, she worked at a pharmacy and had a small house, making her far better off than the teenager. She couldn’t stand to see him so thin and pathetic, nor did she want to see him end up in jail for stealing.

They both glowered in silence, eying each other up with equally stubborn scowls.

Finally, Naruto snatched the ten dollar bill away and stuffed it in his pocket with a defeated sigh. Tsunade smirked, opening her medical book back up.

“Use it well, brat. I don’t wanna see any burglary stories on the news, alright?”

Naruto let out a ‘humpf’ and turned away.

“I mean it!”

Already a few steps away, he waved one hand lazily without looking over his shoulder. “Yeah, yeah. Thanks, granny.”

“I’m only forty-seven!” Her shout rang out painfully loud, attracting the attention of a few walkers.

“Like I said,” he added, having to say the last word. Then he took off towards the center of the park, where the gardens lay.

The paved walkway turned into a gravel trail as it entered the dominion of blossoms and shrubs. He thought about how kind Tsunade was to give her precious money to him. He knew how stressed out she was; every time she saved up some money, she had to spend it on more medicine or bandages or something.

The first day he ran away from the police seemed so long ago.

\---

_He knew he had to venture out of his safe haven. For more hours, or perhaps days or even months, than he could count he’d been sitting on the floor staring determinedly at the opening in the window, half expecting a squat team to come crashing through in search of the murderer— him._

_He really couldn’t recall how long he’d been sitting on that dusty, stinky floor. The setting sun and turn of day into night seemed like such trivial things compared to keeping watch for the police. Who knows when they could suddenly turn up._

_Trying to wrestle intelligible thoughts out of the air in front of him, Naruto finally resolved to find something to eat. His stomach felt like it was collapsing in upon itself, maybe in some sort of natural implosion._

_Struggling to his feet, he gasped in pain as he stretched the bullet gash on his shoulder. He’d practically forgotten about it in his adrenalin powered flight, and now it burned and throbbed painfully, as if someone was sticking pins in the open wound._

_Grasping the shoulder with one hand, he managed to climb through the window, dropping down on the ground. It was still dark, but the east horizon was tinted with orange. He’d been in the room all night, it seemed._

_Making his way down the street, he stuck close to the buildings, hoping to blend in with the shadows. It didn’t matter, really, because most everyone was asleep. Cars rumbled passed every couple minutes, third-shift workers heading home._

_After reaching the first deserted intersection, Naruto realized that he had no idea where he was planning on going. His stomach pleaded for food, but his shoulder throbbed painfully. He couldn’t go to the hospital; he only had about twenty dollars, which wouldn’t begin to cover a medical bill, and he would have to give his name. The paranoid preteen imagined his name printed on wanted posters all over town_

_No, he would have to find somewhere else to receive medical attention. He just had to find where._

_He crossed the intersection diagonally, not bothering to follow the traffic signs. There were no cars around anyway._

_Thinking back to the Health classes he took in school, he gritted his teeth and tried to remember what one would do in a dire situation like his._

_He should press the wound to stop bleeding. Looking down at his shoulder, he noted that he was instinctively doing that, but only since he stood up. While sitting in the abandoned building, he’d stupidly allowed it to flow free; blood seeped through the whole shoulder and half the arm of his coat. There was a chance it was infected since he’d failed to wrap it, as well._

_Few stores were open at this hour, and they would call the cops as soon as they got a good look at him, regardless of whether they knew he was wanted or not. He couldn’t go to his friends either. The cops had probably searched his neighbors’ and friends’ houses first. Surely everyone knew what had happened by now._

_‘Dammit. Why is this happening to me?’_

_Squeezing his eyes shut, he took a deep breath and tried to summon any useful information he’d learned. Out of all the presenters who had come to their health class, there was probably at least one who had given the information he needed. He wracked his brain._

_‘There was that scrawny old guy who talked about the dangers of unsafe sex. Probably not what I need. That Asian woman who presented on… what? Oh, cyber bullying. If I was worrying about cyber bullying, it would mean I had a computer, which would mean none of this happened. Okay… that blonde lady with the huge boobs. What did she say? Something about hospitals. Hospitals!’_

_He remembered the busty woman who had been surprisingly bad tempered, ranting about the unfairness of hospitals these days. She said she had started some sort of hospital for people with no money on the south side of town— the poorer side, of course._

_Naruto, glancing at the light from the rising sun which showed east, quickly headed south._

_He recalled the blonde lady saying something about the bridge. There was a river that ran through Konoha, so naturally there were bridges to cross it. But which bridge? There were three._

_Deciding to go for the middle one, which was closest, Naruto sped up. The pain in his shoulder was white hot now, searing down his arm and across his chest. Surely that couldn’t be good._

_As he neared the bridge, he looked around for a large white building. That’s what hospitals look like, right? Glancing up and down the street, his shoulders sagged when he didn’t see any such structure. He was about to go to the west bridge when a rather dirty sign caught his eye._

_“Lady Tsunade’s Affordable Health Care Center”. It stood in front of a short stocky building, with only two stories and more than a few windows. Naruto was skeptical of the sign, but followed it anyway._

_He tentatively pushed the front door open and was immediately met by a low buzz of people whispering and fabric rustling. A small entrance hallway opened up into a large room where people were lying on cots and blankets, with a few people dressed in white running about. Across the room was a deep hallway with other rooms branching off._

_There wasn’t a front desk so much as a man sitting in a chair at the entrance with a very thick clipboard. He was snoozing, his large glasses slipping down his nose._

_Naruto, still clutching his left shoulder, glanced around nervously, but no one else noticed him. Timidly reaching out, he tapped the napping man on the shoulder. His head snapped up, sleepy eyes becoming alert when he noticed the blood on Naruto’s shoulder._

_Pushing some silver hair behind his ear, the man gripped his pencil and exclaimed, “Welcome to Lady Tsunade’s health care center. Any care you receive here will be completely free of charge. My name is Kabuto Yakushi. I assume you need work on that shoulder.” He looked at the bloody sleeve with a worried expression. Naruto noted how kind it was of Kabuto to care about his injury even though they didn’t know each other._

_“Uh, yeah…” Naruto answered lamely._

_Kabuto gave him a comforting smile before scribbling something down on his clipboard. He pointed down the hall and said, “You can go down there. At the very end, turn right. Tell Shizune I sent you. She has black hair and a tattoo of a pig on her arm.” Naruto committed the instructions to memory, nodding and saying his thanks._

_He wandered down the hall, looking all around. Upon entering the room, he was greeting with moans of pain and rustling sounds as people tossed in their sleep._

_Sure enough, there was a black haired woman standing over a table, examining little orange bottles, which Naruto assumed contained medicine. He made his way over to her, stealing a peek at her arm. Her sleeves were partially rolled up, revealing half a tattoo of a pig._

_“A-are you Shizune?” he asked, not really wanting to bother her. Holding a bottle in each hand, she turned to look at him. Her curious expression softened when she saw his shoulder._

_“Yes. Did Kabuto send you?” He nodded, and she said, “Good. That looks nasty. Come sit here.” She led him away from the table to an empty space on the floor covered with a clean fleece blanket._

_They both sat down, and Naruto pulled off his coat with a couple winces. The left side of his orange shirt was completely soaked through with blood. Shizune asked him to take his shirt off, which he paused at. His mother’s boyfriend had a temper, and would sometimes take it out on them. He didn’t want Shizune questioning the bruises he had._

_Then he realized that the man was dead, and it didn’t really matter. Pulling his shirt off, he could tell Shizune wanted to ask him what kind of a fight he got into. Surely a twelve year old boy wasn’t strong or hormonal enough to pick stupid fights. But she remained silent, instead opening her medical kit and cleaning the wound._

_He flinched at the burning sensation of the antiseptic against his raw skin, but knew it was for the best. Shizune made a ‘hmm’ sound. Naruto looked up to see her frowning, and frowned, too._

_“I’ll need to get Tsunade to help stitch this up. Wait here.” His eyes widened. Surely it wasn’t that bad. But he didn’t have a chance to ask her before she scurried out of the room._

_Trying to ignore the moans and snores around him, he looked down at the wound for the first time. The skin was red and black with infection. The bullet had dug a trench across his shoulder, and blood oozed out like ketchup overflowing a burger, but significantly less appetizing._

_Grimacing at the sight, he looked away to see none other than the busty lady who had presented to his class last year carrying some sort of kit. This must be Tsunade. She didn’t remember him._

_She knelt down next to him, exclaiming, “So, what’ve you done to yourself, brat?” Naruto furrowed his brow. He wasn’t a brat._

_“I’m not a brat.” Tsunade glanced up, almost surprised. Her eyes were glued to his face for a moment as if she recognized something. She shook her head and opened her kit._

_“Sure you are. Only a brat would argue with a doctor.” She carefully threaded a curved needle, pulling the knot tightly. “Hold still, this’ll hurt.”_

_Naruto, still confused by her paradoxical statement, blinked and said, “What?”  
Tsunade stuck the needle in his flesh, causing him to jerk away. However, Shizune, sitting beside him, had done this a hundred times and was already holding him in place. He clenched his fists and teeth, trying to ignore the searing pain._

_Tsunade proved to be a true doctor; she worked quickly and efficiently, finishing in about twenty seconds. She tied off the thread and sat back to admire her handiwork. Naruto felt like a sampler._

_The blonde doctor patted some antibacterial cream around the wound and announced quietly, “It looks like it’s got a small infection. You should stay here for the rest of today.”_

_Naruto nodded. Hopefully the police wouldn’t come here looking for him. Tsunade smiled before standing up, taking the med kit with her. Clearly she had other patients to attend to._

_“Thank you.” Naruto said as she walked away. She stopped and looked over her shoulder, smiling and nodding._

\---

Naruto walked down the rocky path between the flower beds, glancing over the short bushes at kids running around their parents. He could recall his mother taking him to the park a few times when he was very young, pointing out the daises and roses and explaining their meaning, but she had not taken him since her boyfriend moved in. He envied the children’s youthful bliss, how they would go home with their families and sit down for dinner and talk about their day. They didn’t yet know what the real world was like.

He paused to stare down at the red carnations, the color reminding him of his mother’s hair. It had always been so long and bright, and she would spend time every day sitting in her bedroom just brushing it. When Naruto was little he used to go into her room and help her brush the back, and she would laugh and tell jokes. She always knew how to make him smile.

Tearing his gaze away from the nostalgic flowers, he continued on to the fountain in the center of the garden. It was circular and very big, with benches spread around it. In the middle of the streams of water stood a bronze and iron statue of a person riding an eagle, their arms spread wide majestically, as if they had not a care in the world.

He sat down on one of the benches, suddenly feeling very weary. Leaning with his elbows on the bench-back, Naruto slouched down and stared at the statue until he felt his eyes begin to droop. He tried to keep them open, but gravity gently tugged them down, the crickets and bubbling water playing him a soft lullaby.

 


	3. The Not Accident

Chapter 2: The Not Accident

 

Scritch, scritch.

Naruto shook his heavy head, eyebrows knitting together at the irritating sound. It sounded like a cat tentatively scratching at a board. The sun was bright on his eyelids, so he kept them shut, not wanting to hurt his eyes. He leaned his head over and tugged his ear, wondering if the sound was a small animal.

“Can you move back?” a sweet voice requested.

Naruto nodded sleepily, and stopped pulling his ear to move his head back to where it was. After settling to go to sleep again, he stopped.   
“Wait, what?” Blinking his eyes open, he was met by the intensely bright sun. His hand quickly came up to shade his delicate pupils as he looked around.

Sitting on a bench across from him was a girl who looked about his age holding an open notebook. She appeared to be writing something in it— so that’s where the scratching sound was coming from. Her hair was dyed an odd color, pale pink. “Who’re you?”

Her green irises separated from the page in front of her to meet him. She continued to write with her pencil, although the lines she was making seemed too unbroken for letters. Her face was kind as she responded, “Sakura Haruno. Who are you?”

Naruto frowned. He didn’t recognize her face or her name, so she hadn’t gone to school with him. While he seriously doubted his criminal record was as popular as someone like the Three Hour Massacre, he was still reluctant to give his name. So instead, he asked, “What are you writing?”

Sakura found this funny for some reason, because she giggled. “I’m not writing; I’m drawing. It’s for school. I was drawing this fountain and, since you were in the background, you, too.”  
She was drawing him? Was that legal?

Shifting uncomfortably, Naruto folded his arms. “Can I see it?” Sakura nodded, standing up and moving to sit next to him. She presented the notebook to him.

The drawing was all gray with pencil graphite, and very detailed. Clearly this pink haired girl was pretty meticulous. His attention was drawn to the figure on the bench— himself, he supposed. Sure enough, the person was leaning lazily with their elbows on the back, head tipped to one side. Blushing, he realized that she must have been watching him for a while to get so much detail.

“It’s like really good.” He said finally, passing the picture back to its creator, who nodded her thanks. “What school do you go to?”

“Konoha North High. I just moved here last month, so I haven’t made too many friends yet.” She looked down dejectedly.

Giving her a reassuring grin, Naruto patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry; you’ll make plenty of friends. You seem really nice, and you’re like a good artist to boot.”

“Thanks, uh--” she cut off, finally noticing that she had never received the blond’s name.  
“It’s Naruto.”  
“Right. Thanks, Naruto...”

They admired the flowers for a moment. Naruto was more than content to sit quietly next to this pretty girl in an enclosed garden, but Sakura didn’t seem to like stretches of silence.

“So, uh, what school do _you_ go to?”

Naruto wondered how he should answer, if at all. He could easily lie and say he went to one of the other high schools in Konoha, though the other public one was across the river so there was a slim chance he would walk all the way to this park to sniff the flowers, and the rest were private. He doubted someone rich enough to go to a private school would wear scraps like him, and Sakura didn’t seem dumb enough to buy that at any rate. So he went with the truth.   
“I don’t really go to school.” At her confused face, he added, “I, uh, like can’t afford it.” It was true that there were some kids who, although they lived with their families, were simply too poor to buy the supplies and pay the taxes. Usually they held jobs of dubious legality, such as delivering questionable packages or selling stolen items on the street.

Sakura apparently believed him, because she fumbled with her sketchbook and said sympathetically, “Oh, that’s too bad. I’m sorry.” She looked at him from head to toe for the first time, probably taking note of his ratty clothes and thin figure. Naruto squirmed under her gaze.

“Say, do you know what time it is?” She pulled back her sweatshirt sleeve to reveal a blue digital watch.

“Yeah, it’s 4:38.”

Hiding his surprise at how long he slept, Naruto got to his feet. “At least it’s still Sunday,” he muttered to himself, adding, “Well, I gotta go.” He was uncomfortable staying in one place too long lest the police catch wind of him. “It’s was nice meeting you, Sakura. Maybe we’ll see each other again.”

“Yes, that’d be nice.” She smiled as if suddenly shy, closing her notebook. “Thanks for helping me get a good grade in art class.”

They both chuckled, and Naruto left.

 

Almost as soon as he had entered the downtown area, a police car cruised by. Naruto lowered his head, scratching the ear facing the car nonchalantly to cover his hair. Unfortunately, his bright blond hair was often the trait that gave him away the most often; the orange pants and uniquely patched coat were tied for a close second. He couldn’t exactly whip out a credit card and buy a new wardrobe at Macy’s. He supposed he could he go back to the homeless shelter and ask for new clothes, but he would feel bad for taking more than his fair share when so many other people needed those clothes. Poverty was one of the biggest issues in Konoha.

The police car passed without noticing him. He had just let out a sigh of relief when a hand grabbed his shoulder.

Jumping, he spun around.

“Jeez, you scared the crap outta me!” he scolded the man standing there. “What do you want, Mr. Hatake?”  
The man brushed a lock of prematurely gray hair behind an ear, sniffing. “I told you, call me Kakashi. All this ‘Mr.’ business makes me feel like an old man.” He moved beside Naruto and they walked together.

“Well, your hair’s gray, and you’re crazy. Aren’t those signs of being old?”

Kakashi just sighed, putting his hands in the pockets of his police jacket and shaking his head in mock sorrow. “You have no respect for your elders. Besides, I’m not even thirty.”

“Yeah, whatever. So what do you want, _Kakashi_?”

“I just wanted to let you know that the police are deciding to come down hard on your case from now on.”  
“Huh? Why? Usually they only try to arrest me when they happen to catch sight of me on the street,” Naruto exclaimed, frowning. After pause, he asked, “Is it because of the thing with Asuma? ‘Cause I swear, I didn’t mean to break his nose.”

“Sure you didn’t. I guess they’re sick of you running around under their noses.” Kakashi shrugged. “Keep on your guard.”

His airy tone suggested it was more than the broken nose incident, but Kakashi refused to elaborate. Raising an eyebrow, Naruto replied, “Thanks for the warning anyway. You know, I still don’t get why you’re helping me. Not that I don’t want your help, but aren’t you supposed to be, like, trying to arrest me, too?”

Kakashi shrugged indecisively. “You’re a good kid. I don’t want to see you rot in jail.”

“That’s what you keep saying, but I think you’re hiding something,” Naruto accused, but Kakashi just ignored him. The helpful actions of the officer had seemed a trick when he first approached Naruto, but over time the boy realized that he was truly sincere in his helpful efforts; he just wasn’t sure _why_ Kakashi would care so much about one brat running around the streets of Konoha. It’s not like there was a shortage of homeless teens that could use the help. What made him special? “Fine. Just don’t get yourself into trouble for my sake.”

“Cute, but you don’t have to worry about me. So, did you find what you were looking for in the police station?”

Naruto said stonily, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Kakashi held his stare for a few seconds, then blinked in defeat and turned away.

Scowling at the off duty officer, Naruto watched him leave.

‘Weirdo’.

 

 

Only a few blocks away, he experienced hunger pangs again. Knowing he should save the rest of the bread he’d stolen, Naruto put his hand on his stomach when it growled defiantly, as if to muffle the sound.

A few people stopped in front of him, waiting for a blue ‘walk’ sign to light up and allow them to cross the busy street ahead. Naruto absentmindedly followed, pushing up his coat sleeve to scratch his elbow. When they entered the crosswalk, it took a moment for his mind to register the movement. He trailed the group by a few feet, not paying attention to his surroundings.

He wondered how his old school friends were doing. Since he’d run away those years ago, he hadn’t seen them. Did they miss him? He never really hung out with them outside of school, besides to go to the park for an hour or two after class let out.

He also considered what he would be doing right now if his life had continued as normal. His birthday was coming up. His mother would probably cook him a cake like she did every year, with a big ‘16’ on it, like the treat would make up for how she was always gone. Her boyfriend would probably ignore him, as per usual, and Naruto would make the same birthday wish he made every year: _bring my father back_.

The sharp ringing of a bell snapped him back to the real world.

The biker tried to stop and swerve at the same time, and crashed sideways into Naruto. They went tumbling to the ground, the bike landing on top of them like an appropriately placed gravestone.

The boy who had until very recently been on the bike quickly climbed up, mumbling, “I didn’t see you.” He brushed dust off his pants, wincing at his scraped hands, which, although raw and red, weren’t bleeding.

Naruto sat up and gripped his arm tightly. A part of the bike, maybe the chain, had cut his forearm; it wasn’t too deep, but it throbbed painfully nonetheless.

The black haired boy watched unhelpfully as Naruto got to his feet. A car honked behind them, reminding them that they were still in the middle of the street. The boy grabbed his bike and both teenagers hurried to the side to assess their damages, limping slightly.

“Are you okay?” Naruto asked, trying not to sound bitter. As a pedestrian, he _had_ had the right of way, but he supposed it wasn’t entirely the other boy’s fault.

Taking in the boy’s appearance, Naruto felt that he had seen him before. He couldn’t recall from where, but his black hair, dark eyes, and stony expression seemed vaguely familiar.

“Yeah. You?” He glanced at the dripping cut on Naruto’s arm.

He wiped some excess blood off and shrugged. “I’ve had worse.”

The black haired boy nodded, rubbing his sore leg.

“Well… bye.” He hopped back on the bike, wincing faintly as he gingerly put his stinging hands on the grips and peddling away, going a little bit slower.

Naruto watched him ride away, feeling irritated. He could have offered a Band-Aid, or at least an apology. “Bastard.”

Pressing the cut, he decided to run by the store and get a few bandages. He didn’t want to spend the ten dollars he had received from Tsunade, realizing from the bite in the air that he would need all the money he could get for medicine. He really didn’t feel like dying a slow painful death of tuberculosis or pneumonia, so he would borrow the bandages without permission, with no intention of returning them— different than stealing, or so he liked to convince himself.

He knew he could always go back to Tsunade’s place, but he already felt bad about taking her money, and he knew how they struggled to get enough supplies. They needed the ointment and bandages for badly injured patients, and his cut was hardly a grave wound.

Naruto pulled his coat sleeve back down and glanced at the sun. It was already setting, the shortening days a sign of the coming winter. Many stores around Konoha closed early on Sunday, so he would have to wait until tomorrow morning.

 

Strolling down the sidewalk, Naruto hunched his shoulders against a particularly bitter gust of wind and let his mind wander, a habit he should really break soon. He was only vaguely aware of his surroundings as he walked past them: a couple walking hand in hand, a colorful poster for a museum exhibition, a monarch butterfly flitting over his head. The insect hovered as if about to land on the brim of his hat. Probably sensing that it hadn’t been washed in some years, it fluttered away.

Shivering, Naruto pulled his coat collar up around his chin and hurried his pace. He couldn’t wait to be back at the paper mill, where it was dark in a comforting way, not the eerily dark of the streets at night where anyone could be lurking in the shadows. He definitely wanted to be back in safety’s embrace before night fell completely. As he walked, he noticed that there were fewer people walking around, almost like something had warded them off. He glanced nervously down each alley he passed, holding his breath in anticipation of a rapist or murderer jumping out.

It was very quiet.

The vehicles were becoming few and far, so the armored van that drove quickly past caught his attention. There were two guards seated in the front, leaving one presumably in the back with whatever they were transporting. Naruto’s curiosity was piqued. It was a different color than the armored trucks used to transport money in Konoha, so it must have been carrying some foreign item.

The large car was about to turn left at the corner ahead when a rather large grenade bounced off its roof, rolling down the hood and underneath the wheels where it exploded. The heat was intense, the boom deafening.

The scene unfolded incredibly quickly. Naruto pushed himself against the brick wall behind him, covering his face with his arms, surprised that his reaction time was even fast enough for him to do that. The shaking and intense heat was enough to throw him to the ground. He assumed this was what an earthquake felt like, and he sensed the wall behind him vibrate powerfully. Peeking out from behind his hands, he found the van on its side against the wall in front of him. It had been blown about ten yards back, smashing against the wall about half a block in front of him, and even the bulletproof windows were cracked.

Whoever made that grenade clearly meant serious business, as bullets rained down upon the car. Naruto, though he was still quite a ways away from the crashed vehicle, ducked behind a lamppost, hands clamped over his ears. He knew it wouldn’t protect him at all if bullets happened to come his way, but it was a comforting action. The glass of the windshield shattered, presumably rendering the passenger and driver dead. The glass shattering, the pelting bullets, the explosions-- he thought his eardrums would surely burst. The back doors of the van, which had been blown open, were facing him. He saw movement inside.

_I have to help them!_

Adrenaline rushing, his fight-or-flight response made this idiotic skeleton of a plan seem reasonable.

He didn’t know who was shooting or from where, so when the barrage of bullets paused he simply ran as fast as his legs would carry him and dove through the doors.

He landed on a pile of cardboard boxes. In fact, the whole back seemed to be filled with a plethora of different sized plain cardboard boxes. They had probably been stacked up, but after the car rolled a few times they turned into a sea. Looking at them, they didn’t seem worthy of being shot at.

Naruto impulsively winced and covered his ears when the gunfire continued. However, it wasn’t aimed at the hold. It was scattered around the front compartment, where the bodies of the driver and passenger lay, and behind the car; apparently, something in these boxes was so precious that the shooter didn’t want to risk damaging it in the unlikely event that the metal side of the car split.

Scrambling over the boxes, Naruto cleared them away to reveal a last guard. He wasn’t wearing a helmet and his head was drenched with blood. He had doubtless fallen out of his seat and smashed his skull against the bulletproof walls. He moaned when Naruto gently shook his arm, trying to help him up.

“N-no, I… I’m past… p-past help…” he sputtered, eyes spinning under his sagging lids. His legs twitched as he presented a tiny box to Naruto, barely bigger than the size of his fist. When the car was attacked, the officer had sought out this box alone to protect it. Naruto stared dumbly at it; it seemed miniscule compared to the larger boxes.

Hearing people yelling outside the car, Naruto hastily took the container. “T-take… this and g-guard it… with your… life.” The man’s feeble coughing ceased and his head fell back. Naruto timidly pressed a finger against his throat, but he felt nothing.

He was about to examine the box when the shouting neared. Deciding it would probably be better for his health not to get caught by whoever attacked this van and murdered the three occupants, Naruto made a mad dash outside, gripping the box tightly. His mind registered two shapes hurrying towards the van’s back, so he swung around the front, dodging around flaming debris. One of the figures pulled out a hand gun and fired, but Naruto sped around the corner. His flight down the sidewalk was stopped by shooting from above; the gunman who had first fired was on the roof corner, blocking Naruto’s escape with a stream of bullets.

He raced out across the street, nearly diving down the nearest alley. Although the bombardment from the rooftop sniper had stopped, he could hear the other two men on his heels. With nothing blocking the path like people or posts, Naruto’s scrawny body couldn’t keep him ahead of the men for long. He looked back to see how close they were, also getting a good look at them.

The taller man had short dark hair and a very angry look on his face. His scariness factor was multiplied by the unnecessarily long switchblade in his hand, the handle wrapped in some sort of white tape. The other man was quite a bit shorter, with long black hair tied back in a messy ponytail. Even from the distance Naruto could see that he had long creases under his eyes, either from lack of sleep or premature winkles. The shorter man also had a pair of red tinted goggles sitting on his forehead and a gun in hand. Both men had red and black bandanas tied around their arms.

While he didn’t know the tall man, Naruto definitely recognized the face of the short man from newspapers years ago. His fear increased exponentially, adrenalin renewed.

The men were only a few yards behind, and now they both had handguns. Naruto saw an old fire escape attached to the side of a brick building, long abandoned and covered in graffiti, up ahead. The fire escape was rusted and hanging at an odd angle. He scrambled awkwardly up the ladder, climbing as fast as he could as bullets were once again headed his way. They bounced off the railings, pinging. The metal structure shook as the men ascended as well. They climbed higher and higher until they were on the roof.

Naruto raced to the edge of the building, skidding to a stop to peer over the edge. There was another building two stories below, a daunting prospect for most people, but Naruto wasn’t most people. He was contemplating jumping over when a gun clicked behind him.

Spinning around, both the men were standing fifteen feet away, barrels pointed at his spiky blond head. He still gripped the cardboard box in a sweaty hand, but his long coat sleeve covered it.

“Damn, I don’t see why you don’t want to kill him, Itachi,” the taller man complained to his partner, who remained silent for a moment with his arm stretched across the taller man’s stomach, stopping him from advancing. Naruto swallowed nervously, heart beating a drum roll.

Itachi lowered his gun. “He won’t turn us into the police. He’s also wanted.”

Stiffening, Naruto clenched his free fist. “I suppose I should, like, be honored that the Three Hour Massacre knows me.”

Itachi seemed unfazed, but the other man sniggered.

“Shut up, Kisame. Let’s get back. You saw how many decoys were in that truck; it’ll take us a while to find it. The police will be on our tails within the hour.” He blinked his dark eyes, examining Naruto under the reddening light. Why did everyone keep checking him out? “Unless, of course, _you_ have what we’re looking for.”

Naruto clenched his jaw. “…huh?” He tried for innocent.

“You were in the back of the truck.”

“I… saw the man inside and went to see if I could, like, help him with his injuries. He was already dead.” Itachi didn’t seem totally convinced, so he added, “It’s not like I took one of those dumb boxes. They were huge; I think you’d notice.”

Several heartbeats of silence passed.

Itachi blinked slowly, like an owl. “The boss might take an interest in this one.”

“You’re lucky kid.” Kisame also lowered his gun, sneering. Naruto internally squirmed under Itachi’s piercing gaze. He didn’t like the sound of the men’s ‘boss’. Simultaneously they both turned and hurried back down the fire escape. “Hey Itachi, what if it’s in a box, _inside_ of another box? That’d be a bitch…”

Naruto let out the breath he’d been holding, legs suddenly shaky. When they were gone, he shook back his coat sleeve to reveal the little parcel. It was taped shut with an abundance of brown packaging tape, giving no hint as to what it contained. Opening his coat, he slipped into one of his inside pockets for safe keeping. The bulkiness of it was uncomfortable, and it looked pretty weird, but he needed his hands free.

He was still wary of going the same way as Kisame and Itachi, so he opted for leaping to the building below. Getting a short running start, he jumped, falling into a roll as soon as he hit the roof below. Swiftly climbing to his feet in one motion, he kept running, eventually finding another metal staircase to descend.

By the time he reached the mill, it was late. The moon was already high in the sky; so much for getting back before nighttime. Luckily, he hadn’t run into any trouble, although he had heard cop cars speeding down the deserted roads, undoubtedly heading towards the scene of the ‘accident’.

Feeling guilt that he hadn’t been able to help the three security guards in the car, he scrambled through the window into his temporary residence. Well, it was supposed to be temporary, but it had been almost four years since he first stumbled upon it.

He took off his coat, tossing in on the uneven table. Sitting down on his makeshift bed, a bundle of patched and worn blankets in the corner behind the table, he took off his hat and pulled the box out. He supposed he could wait until morning, but his curiosity pushed him for a peek inside.

With the moonlight creeping through the window as his light, he carefully ripped the tape off, afraid he might ruin whatever was inside if he tore it apart too quickly.

Once the flaps were open, something enclosed in paper and bubble wrap tumbled out. Again, he underwent the tedious task of undoing each tape strip. The paper unrolled and a small, clear object rolled into Naruto’s lap.

It was a glass fox.


	4. The New Cop

Chapter 3: The New Cop

 

This city was so nostalgic. He hadn’t been here in about fifteen years, maybe more— too many hard memories. He had found love here, but lost it as well. A heavy feeling passed over him as he stared pensively out the car window.

Slowing to a steady stop at a red light, the white haired driver glanced over at his only passenger, who gazed out the window with a thoughtful expression. The driver tried to look indifferent, but the way his forehead creased and his eyes sloped betrayed the worry for his adopted son. He knew what this city meant to the man, and hoped nothing too heart-wrenching would be stirred up.

“You sure you’re okay with this transfer?” he asked, pulling ahead when the light changed. The blond passenger blinked away his contemplative aura, replacing it with a warm smile.

He insisted, “Of course I’m fine. It’s only for a few months anyway. I can’t run away from my life and job just because of a bad experience with one person.”

“But you loved her.”

Blue eyes darkening remorsefully, he looked back at the passing streets. Both men sat in a gloomy silence until the blond pointed out the window. “There’s the apartment complex.”

The old car rattled into the parking lot. They got out and went to the trunk, each pulling out a modest suitcase and a few boxes. The two men hesitantly went inside the shabby building, as if fearful of opening the front door to find a hostage situation in progress. Entering the lobby, they found no such predicament.

After picking up his keys, the younger man led the way up to the third floor, down the dusty hall to his room. The door looked like a large dog had scratched the bottom in an attempt to get in, and he wouldn’t be surprised if the brass number, 344, fell off after a hard slam.

They went inside. It was humble, with a kitchen attached to a sitting room, a bedroom, and a bathroom, but he didn’t need any more than that. Setting down the suitcases, the white haired man put his hands on his hips.

“What a dump,” he remarked ungracefully, frowning.

His adopted son chuckled. “I’ll fix it up. A bucket of paint and some wood glue, and it’ll look good as new.” They both knew he was completely serious.

“Well, I’ll leave it to you. I want to visit an old friend or two before I head back home. You sure you’ll be able to get around without a car?”

“I’m only a few blocks from the station, and there’s a city bus that runs all day.”

The old man nodded, and they hugged quickly. “Take care, Minato.”  
“See you, Jiraiya.”

H - O - M - E

After a not so good night’s sleep, the sun’s rays shining through the window were not very welcome. Naruto blinked his sleepy eyes, turning away from the sun to try and fall back asleep only to find the glass fox staring at him. It was sitting on its box where he had left it. Stretching, he sat up and ruffled his already messy hair, keeping an eye on the little statue.

What was so special about it? He picked it up and turned it over in his hand, examining it closely. It was about five inches tall, with no markings or engravings on it, just two little eyes made out of some kind of red stone. Interestingly, instead of one bushy fox tail it appeared to have nine. _Weird_.

He could see his fingers through it, and he guessed it was made of glass. Regardless of how plain it looked, the officer had told him to guard it with his life, so he planned on doing exactly that. It was least he could do.

Figuring he shouldn’t leave it unattended, he wrapped it back up in its paper. He considered putting it back in the box, but it would be uncomfortable to have in his jacket, so he simply left the box on the floor.

Naruto absentmindedly scratched his arm, wincing when he felt a sharp pain. After the incident with Itachi and Kisame, he’d almost forgotten about the boy on the bike and their accident. The cut on his forearm was now brown with caked blood. He scratched away the dried blood until the cut was clear but bleeding again. A drop of blood ran down his arm as he pulled his sleeve back down and stood up, the paper bundle in hand.

A cold breeze blew in through the cracks in the broken windows, making Naruto shiver as he pulled on his tattered brown coat. He tucked the package into the inside pocket, buttoning it closed to ensure that the fox wouldn’t fall out accidentally.

He yanked his weathered boots on, tying them tightly around his skinny ankles, and stood up. As always, the last thing he grabbed was the old cap that sat next to his makeshift bed. Eyes flickering over the initials, ‘M.N.’, a wave of melancholy washed over him. Pushing it away with a quick sigh, he put the cap on securely and climbed out the window.

Heading down the street, the sidewalks became more and more crowded as he neared the downtown area. It was midmorning, the sun already high in the sky, another grim reminder of winter’s speedy approach.

Naruto drew near the convenience store but hesitated a few feet away. He bit his lip, having second thoughts about the whole stealing thing. Tsunade would be really pissed if she found out, not to mention he felt bad each time he snuck a product out of a store without paying.

He hovered hesitantly, staring at the glass door, trying to decide what to do. The cut was worse than he had originally thought, so just leaving it alone probably wouldn’t be best; it throbbed intensely, and he felt warm blood running down his arm.

Sticking a finger into one of his pockets, he felt the bill that Tsunade had given him the day before. It was crisp and inviting. He could always spend it, but it was basically all the money he had, save for a few loose coins and dollar bills. When winter came full blast, he would need all the money he could get to buy cold medicine and warm food. He had caught pneumonia he first winter alone and had spent nearly three weeks bedridden at Tsunade’s hospital, along with about sixty other people— not an experience he wanted to relive.

Pushing it back down to the bottom of the pocket, he developed a plan.

Turning away from the store, he headed down the street, following the flow of pedestrians. His blue gaze fluttered from person to person, subconsciously checking for any police uniforms and, more recently, the dark bandanas. The image was still clear in his mind-- red clouds lined with white, sewn onto black.

However, all the people he passed had neither gang decorations nor police apparel. His walk to Tsunade’s hospital was calm and went by quickly. He still felt a little bad about asking her for help, but the cut _was_ worse than he had thought; maybe it merited more attention.

Strolling up the cracked sidewalk, two people came out of the hospital. A girl had her arm in a blue sling, and a boy walked beside her with his arm around her shoulder. Naruto passed them and pushed the door open, sticking his head inside.

The lobby, usually busy but not rushed, was relatively crowded. Autumn marked the beginning of flu season, a nuisance to the higher class but a calamity to the lower.

‘Konoha needs to do something about its citizens,’ Naruto reflected, pained by the suffering flooding the room.

The warm feeling of blood sliding down his arm reminded him of why he was here. Stepping all the way in, he was surprised to find that there was no one seated by the door. Usually the kind but less talented medic Hinata checked everyone in and out, and on days she was gone Kabuto took over the duty, but currently neither of them were present.

Troubled by the lack of attendant, Naruto searched the room for a familiar face. There were many people sitting on chairs and blankets, drawing heaving breaths and uttering feeble, strained coughs, but there were no nurses. He frowned, heading across the room and down the hall.

At the end, the hallway broke into two rooms, one to the right and one to the left. Turning the right corner, he was practically knocked off his feet by a giant pair of breasts.

“Naruto! Don’t tell me you’ve suddenly gotten sick, too?” Tsunade looked worse for wear; dark bags were hanging below her amber eyes, and her mouth seemed frozen in a frown.

He hid his bloody hand behind his back. “Um, no… well, I…” He stumbled over his words, trying to find the right explanation.

Tsunade rubbed her forehead. “Listen, I don’t have time for twenty questions. If you’re not dying, get out. There’s a nasty bout of measles going around, but with the sudden cold front in the past week, a lot of people have gotten pneumonia and bronchitis to add to that. _And_ there was some sort of fire last night; burn patients everywhere! I’m up to my eyes in people who need treatment and we don’t even have close to enough equipment.” She sighed heavily, covering her eyes with her fingers for a short moment before peeking through them.

Seeing Naruto’s discouraged expression, she put a hand on his shoulder, the same one she had healed nearly four years ago. She offered a little smile, reassuring, “You don’t look too sick, so don’t worry. As long as you stay away from the seriously ill people, you’ll be fine. Sorry, I didn’t mean to dump that on you.” She knew how much Naruto cared about others. “Listen, was there something you needed?”  
Naruto dropped his eyes to the floor. Even though it was a nasty cut, how could he ask for treatment now? He would be taking it away from the truly sick patients, and he could see that Tsunade was keen to get back to them.

Forcing a grin, he made sure his hand was behind his back and replied, “Oh, no— I just wanted to see how you were, granny. But I can see you’re busy, so I’ll come back later, okay?”

For once, the doctor didn’t reprimand him for calling her ‘granny’, instead nodding indecisively, as if she didn’t quite believe him, but she knew she needed to get back to her patients.

“Alright...” She brushed past him, and he turned to watch her leave, hiding his bloody hand.

When she was gone, Naruto departed back down the hallway and slipped through the front door. Once outside, he let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, pushing his sleeve back to examine the cut on his arm. It was looking pretty sickly, and he believed it would classify as a festering wound. Grimacing, he pulled the sleeve back down. Damn his guilt.

Well, after that little visit, he could cross getting help from Tsunade off his list. With the news that measles was going around, along with pneumonia and bronchitis just to make it that much worse, his resolution to save all his money was reinforced. He had no desire to sit in the hospital, crowded with all the other sick people, too ill to do anything but feel sorry for himself. Besides, he had to take care of that little glass fox, whatever it was.

He put his hand on his jacket, feeling the lump that marked where the little statue resided inside his pocket. Maybe he could take it to someone and ask them what it was— but who?

He couldn’t get close to the police station without risking arrest. If Kakashi dropped by again, maybe he could pass it along.

Pondering this, Naruto wiped the fresh blood off his hand onto his jacket, adding to the messy array of stains already present. He headed back towards the convenience store, feeling defeated; he had to resort to stealing, once again.

H - O - M - E

Setting the small stack of plates in the cupboard that he had wiped down a few moments ago, Minato stole a glance at the radio-clock on his counter. It was a moving gift from a friend back in his hometown, Harbor City. He’d lived there most of his life with his adoptive father, Jiraiya Namikaze.

Brushing a lock of longish blond hair out of his face, he put his hands on his hips and looked around his newly furnished apartment, blue eyes revealing his satisfaction with the modifications. He was still quite young, nearly forty, not to mention his training with the police force had sculpted his body into a thin, muscled figure, so this sort of labor was still relatively easy.

He was due at his job at nine that morning; the clock read 8:25. Figuring he should get a head start since he wanted to make a good impression, Minato brushed some dust off his shirt and went to change. He had spent most of last night and this morning cleaning up his new apartment, emptying his few boxes of their contents and finding appropriate places to put them. However, much of the time was used dusting counters and wiping floors and killing bugs with moldy flyswatters.

Swiftly throwing on his police uniform, adorned with the shiny brass KCPD button to replace his tarnished HCPD one, he grabbed his coat and left, making sure to lock the door behind himself.

The blond man strolled down the busy sidewalk, checking an outside clock to see the time. He still had twenty five minutes until he had to be at the station, so, to save some money, he opted to walk the few blocks.

Arriving at the station, he was surprised to find that of the few people working the desks, no one even looked his way when he pushed through the doors. A man with dark sunglasses was typing away at a computer with a frown; another, uniquely with two different colored eyes, silently addressing an envelope. The last man, with spiky silver hair, was also engrossed in his work. Someone could have walked in with a bazooka and they probably wouldn’t have noticed. Pushing away a feeling of doubtfulness, he approached the front desk and the silver haired man who sat there. The desk was littered with papers and folders, a mug’s content of pens and paper clips spilled all over the corner. The man was scribbling away at something, not even noticing Minato’s appearance.

Minato waited for an awkward moment before clearing his throat very deliberately, causing the man to look up. His eyes drooped lazily, like he was bored out of his wits with this desk job.

Blinking, maybe in surprise or realization, he exclaimed, “You must be the guy the chief called in. You’re investigating the Tailed Beasts, right?”

Minato nodded. “That’s right. Minato Namikaze.” He held out a hand, which the man accepted after a few seconds, shaking it lightly.

“I’m Kakashi Hatake.” Kakashi sniffed drearily.

“According to the file I received, not to mention all the news stations, said that someone had shot down two armored trucks five days ago. I got the call that two more when down last night. The pictures were… impressive.”

The desk manager blinked solemnly. “I believe Mr. Sarutobi is waiting for you in his office. It’s down the hall there, the second door on the left; he’ll take you to each of the sites.” Pulling a yellow envelope out of the mess on his desk, he added, “These are the few updates we’ve managed to make. Hopefully you’ll make more progress than us.”

Accepting the envelope, Minato headed down the hall. He found the door with a brass plate marked ‘Asuma Sarutobi’ with the subtitle “Chief of Police” nailed to it and rapped his knuckles on the heavy frame.

“Come in,” a voice responded.

Minato pushed the door open, faced with a stocky man smoking a cigarette. “Those are bad for your health.”

Asuma chuckled, blowing some smoke off to the side. “That’s what my wife keeps telling me. You must be Minato.” They shook hands and exchanged greetings. “Thanks for coming on such short notice. This is supposed to be a temporary stint, so the faster we solve this, the faster you can go back home. You’re our expert on-call.”

“Yes, usually I get more than two days’ notice before a big move, but it’s been getting a little dull at Harbour City,” Minato joked. “Anyway, down to business.”

After going over the case briefly, the two men left the station, climbing into Asuma’s police car.

“These are nice cars,” Minato remarked, observing the fresh coat of paint and newly furnished seats.

Asuma flicked his cigarette butt out the window, not taking his eyes off the road. “Yeah, they’re all pretty new. The Chief felt like being nice to us, I guess.” Minato raised an eyebrow, wondering why this ‘chief’ was spending more money on buying fancy new cars than closing cases. And if Asuma was the Chief of Police, then who was this mysterious ‘chief’, who supposedly held a higher rank? Maybe a nickname for someone higher up.

They pulled into the first shooting site, the road marked by bright orange cones and yellow caution tape. Exiting the car, Minato hunched his shoulders against the cold air; his breath was nearly visible. He opened the notebook he carried with him, prepared to take notes on what he saw.

A small armored truck lay upside down against a concrete building, its wheels shredded and its windows shattered. Several cop cars were parked around, officers milling around, examining evidence and cross referencing samples. Minato approached the truck and looked inside the front, half expecting to see the dead driver and passenger, all bloody and mangled. There were no bodies, but the seats looked like they had been through a wood chipper, indicating that countless bullets had entered the front compartment, and they were stained red.

Asuma lit another cigarette, explaining, “We removed the bodies when we found the cars. All the guards in every truck were dead by the time we got here. Gunshot wounds. It’s a shame.” He didn’t sound very sympathetic, but then again, as cops they had already seen the worst.

Straightening up, Minato went around to the back of the truck, Asuma trailing behind him. The doors had probably been knocked open by the sheer force of some explosive; obviously, whoever had attacked the truck meant serious business.

There were cardboard boxes spilling out of the truck itself, most of them vigorously ripped open. “Decoys?” Minato asked, gesturing to the boxes. Asuma nodded. “But they still managed to find the real thing?” Another nod. Minato read the number on the side of the truck, as distorted            as it was from the rain of bullets. He pulled out the envelope that Kakashi had given him, finding a sheet that listed the trucks’ numbers and their contents. “So this one was carrying the… Turtle?” Minato asked, flipping through the papers.

Asuma took his cigarette between his middle and ring finger. “Yeah. The Bull and the Cat were taken six nights ago, the Fox, and the Turtle last night. They were all stolen in transport. It seems that the trucks were attacked two at a time, meaning we have a pretty large group of people on our hands.”  
“And they have some major weapons.” Minato glanced at the sizeable dents in the side of the truck, as well as at a little square of tape on the street by the truck; inside the taped off area was the exploded shell of a large grenade, left alone as evidence.

The blond cop turned and walked around the street surrounding the truck, observing bullet holes in the buildings. There was a trail of holes from the truck up the side of the wall it was leaning against and halfway across the road.

Looking up towards the sky, Minato pointed to the roof of a three story building across the street.

“There was a sniper up there. The trail of bullets indicates that they came from up high. That would be a good vantage point to use a grenade launcher, too.”

Asuma understood and ordered a few of the criminologists and officers around to examine the rooftops. As he did that, Minato noticed something caught between the open door and the body of the armored truck, going over to inspect it. Only a small corner was visible; the other officers must not have seen it.

He grabbed a glove from the table the examiners had set up and put it on. Carefully, he tugged the shredded piece of cloth out of the door. It was bigger than he thought, a little smaller than his palm. It was black, adorned with a red and white design, only a small part still discernible. It was sort of swirly, maybe a whirlpool or a cloud.

“Check this out,” he exclaimed, holding the frayed fabric up to Asuma, who took it, looking it over. Asuma wasn’t wearing gloves.

“Part of a gang bandana?”  
Minato nodded, slightly perturbed by Asuma’s negligence in investigative conduct. “My thinking exactly. It’s the typical lightweight sturdy material. Someone will have to figure out which gang.”

Putting the cloth in a plastic bag to protect it, Asuma gave it to one of the other officers. “Turns out it was a good thing the Chief called you in. Our force is pretty small, with no proficient detectives,” he praised with an embarrassed chuckle. “Shall we visit the other sites?”

Again with the Chief. All the emails Minato had gotten had been signed by Genma Shiranui, Deputy Chief.

Close to six hours later, Minato and Asuma were back in the police car, driving to the station. They had visited the two recent locations from last night and the two from five days ago, and after scrutinizing each scene, Minato had determined that a gang of at least six people had attacked the armored trucks, including snipers sitting high on the rooftops, and they had a proficient supply of weapons, not to mention their astounding planning strategy.

Asuma dropped a thick packet, the report, on his desk, blowing cigarette smoke to the side. “We’ll take a look into what you’ve uncovered today. Hopefully you’ll be able to figure out what gang wears those bandanas.”

“Consider it done.” As a detective, Minato knew he would probably have to go undercover to find out the identity of the gang, a potentially deadly mission considering everything he knew so far pointed to the fact that they were very dangerous people. Still, it was his duty as an officer to not only protect the citizens, but to retrieve the missing items.

“Good. You’re shift starts at seven tomorrow.”

Acknowledging the dismissal, Minato nodded and walked out of Asuma’s office, passing Kakashi’s desk. He noticed the silver haired man discreetly reading a paper that was mostly covered by another packet, as if to hide it.

Curiosity piqued, Minato paused and said in a low voice so as not to alert the other officers around the lobby, “What’re you reading?”

Kakashi jumped and quickly covered the sheet in a guilty motion, but his face remained as bored as ever. “Ah, you’re back then? Hopefully you’ve been able to find some clues…” He trailed off, as though he was going to say something else but thought better of it.

Minato nodded, noticing the way he evaded the question. As the conversation topic shifted to something well known, he let his voice rise again. “Yes, actually. Seems there’s a pretty serious gang running around here.”

“That’s not the only thing running around,” the desk worker with the sunglasses remarked. “I’m Ebisu, by the way. Did you tell him about the Fox, Kakashi?” He smirked, like it was some sort of inside joke, at which Kakashi sighed.

“The Fox was stolen last night, along with the Turtle.” Minato replied, not catching on to the joke.

“A different kind of fox. If you’re staying here, you might as well be on the lookout for the person we call the Fox. He’s a kid, teenager I guess, but he’s a bit of a pickpocket.” Kakashi started.

Ebisu snorted. “He’s a damn thief, and a murderer at that.”

Minato noticed Kakashi’s jaw clench, but only said, “Murderer?”

“Apparently.” Kakashi seemed more than doubtful, but explained, “We got a call from a person who heard suspicious sounds from their neighbor’s house. By the time we got there, his parents had been shot dead. Kotetsu and Izumo, another team of officers, said they saw the kid flee the scene. There’s not exactly any hard evidence that he’s the one who shot them, since his and both his parents’ DNA is on the gun, but since he’s the only one left alive who knows what happened, we’ve been trying to catch him. We’ve been pursuing him for… several years.”

Ebisu rolled his eyes. “Oh, please. Everyone knows he did it. Hell, _I_ think he probably did it. Kids are crazy these days. You don’t give them that new whatever, and they go nuts.”

Minato raised an eyebrow skeptically. “So, you’ve been chasing down this one kid for _years_ , and you’ve never caught him?” The other desk workers dipped their heads in embarrassment.

“That’s why we call him the Fox. He’s clever and fast, and as slippery as a fish,” Ebisu saved. He wheeled his chair around the desk to a metal filing cabinet, heaving open the middle drawer. Pulling out thick file, he held up a photo for Minato to see. Minato took it, scrutinizing the image.

It was of a relatively young boy, maybe fourteen or fifteen running down a sidewalk, wearing a tattered trench coat and orange pants, which were probably another reason he was nicknamed ‘the Fox’. The picture was most likely taken from a traffic camera, given the heavy pixelation. His hair, mostly hidden by a newsboy cap, Minato’s favorite kind of hat, was blond and stuck out in different directions. Even though his appearance was scraggly and dirty, a carefree, joyful expression adorned his face.

“He looks like an… unusual character,” he commented, handing the photo back to Ebisu. The picture was interesting, and it was shocking to imagine such cheery kid murdering someone, if he even did, but he was more concerned with his job than some kid roaming the streets. If the kid had been on the run for several years and wasn’t connected to any other murders, it was doubtful he was a serial killer, and pickpockets were the least of his troubles; he had professional police training, after all. If the kid tried to steal something off him, Minato could handcuff him before he had time to blink.

Besides, the kid didn’t look like someone on FBI’s Most Wanted.

He was going to ask the kid’s name, but shook his head and resolved not to get involved; he’d leave catching the brat up to the Konoha police, although it seemed they weren’t the most competent.

Minato decided to concentrate solely on his job here. It would probably take a while to solve, especially with such a mysteriously menacing force behind the robberies.

While the three conversed, the other man watched in the room with a calculating gaze, fixing his differently colored eyes, one dark forest green, the other bright amber, on the trio.

Minato felt the stare and shivered. As Kakashi and Ebisu argued about the motives of the Fox, Minato glanced towards the other side of the room, but the man sitting there was just pulling a pen out of a mug on his desk. He nodded his head and smiled, to which Minato nodded in return. Still, something felt a little creepy about the man in the corner.

Checking the clock, Minato remarked, “It seems my shift ended half an hour ago.” Taking the hint, Kakashi and Ebisu stopped bickering and said their goodbyes. Minato pulled his coat on and, with his notebook and envelope under his arm, headed home.

The sun was starting to drift out of sight, and the walk home seemed slightly longer, probably because Minato stepped slower. He felt weighted down by the heavy discoveries he had made, both about the crime scenes and the police themselves. How could they have missed the shredded bandana piece? Yeah, it wasn’t exactly in plain sight, but surely at least one other investigator would have noticed it. These _were_ the Tailed Beasts they were talking about, the most expensive and famous artifacts in the world, not just some fancy glass paperweights.

He scratched his head in thought, brow furrowing.

Almost as soon as he took his shoes off and set the envelope and notebook on the kitchen table, his stomach growled intensely. He opened the fridge only to find it devoid of any groceries.

Ah yes, he had spent all of the time between moving in and going to work unloading his few possessions and cleaning the apartment. He had put his plates in the cupboard, not realizing that he hadn’t bought any food to put on them. Groaning in the realization that he would have to make a trip to the food store, Minato shuffled to the bedroom to change out of his police uniform.

Once in civilian clothes, the blond man once again headed out the front door, tiredly making his way down the stairs.

He recalled passing a small convenience store while driving with Jiraiya that was a few blocks away. Deciding to go there instead of a larger grocery store since it was closer, he threaded his way between the mass of people on the sidewalk towards the direction of the store.

A boy was locking up a bike with a dented frame in front of the store, moving to go inside at the same time as Minato. He looked a little worse for wear with his hands wrapped in bandages. Being a Good Samaritan, Minato held the door open for the dark haired boy, who just jerked his head in thanks.

Following him into the convenience store, Minato immediately went to the refrigerated section near the back to pick up some milk and meat.

As he was trying to decide between a half gallon and a whole gallon of skim milk, a gunshot rang throughout the store.

H - O - M - E

It was around five o’clock, and people were milling about the downtown shopping and walking after work and school let out. Naruto reached his destination in under fifteen minutes, casually entering the little store. It sat hunched near but not on the corner of the street, squished between a quaint little tailor’s shop and a dark game shop that had unnerving cardboard cutouts of aliens in the display window.

The store was small compared to the larger supermarkets across town, but it still carried a wide variety of products, ranging from groceries to office supplies to drugs (the legal kind, of course). A few people, around seven, were milling around the store. A couple were talking here and there, but most were meandering throughout the store, either trying to stall going home or trying to recall what they had written on the shopping list that lay forgotten on their kitchen counter.

Trying to remain inconspicuous, Naruto looked around discreetly and darted into the first aid isle like a mouse into a hole. Once he was fairly certain the cashier’s view of him was blocked, he searched the shelves for some ointment and bandages. He slipped a small roll of bandages into his pocket, glancing around to make sure nobody had seen him.

As he was about to take a little tube of Neosporin, a boy strolled into the isle. Naruto froze with the roll a few inches away from his pocket, troubled eyes meeting the dark stare of the black haired boy. His hands were wrapped in some type of gauze, and he was in the middle of reaching for a bottle of NSAIDs, a pill good for helping with bruises.

The two boys stared in a frozen silence, recognizing each other from the bike incident the day before. The dark haired boy raised an eyebrow and queried, “Are you stealing that?”

Naruto gulped, averting his eyes. He opened his mouth to retort, “No, I was, like… jus-just look—”

He was cut off by the shattering of glass and a gun going off. Both boys instinctively ducked, and someone screamed from the front of the store. A man appeared at the entrance to their isle, wearing a ski mask and holding a fearsome looking firearm. “Hands up and get over here!” he ordered, his voice deep and serious. Naruto and the dark haired boy exchanged anxious expressions before obeying, slowly emerging from the aisle. The man roughly pushed the dark haired boy to emphasize his authority. The other shoppers were being herded to a side wall. Two other people in ski masks were shoving them down, both carrying weapons as well. One had the curves and higher voice of a female, while the other was a fatter male.

“Come on, fatty, hurry it up. We’ve gotta get the cash and get the hell outta here before the damn cops show up,” the female growled to the large man, who grabbed Naruto’s coat and threw him down next to a surprised man with spiky blond hair. Naruto readjusted his cap, glaring angrily at the thugs.

“Do you hafta be so mean?” the man answered dejectedly. “You swear too much, Tanyuyu.”

The woman, Tanyuyu, punched him heavily in the arm, but he didn’t flinch. “Shut up Jirobo, you fat idiot. God, you piss me off.” She turned away from him to watch the fourth robber, who had bluish hair poking out of his mask, pointing a gun at the frightened cashier, who was trying to open the register, his shaking hands hindering him.  
The man was impatient, grumbling, “C’mon, you piece of trash, we haven’t got all day.” The gun clicked, adding incentive for him to move faster.

The blond man sitting next to Naruto murmured, “As long as we give them what they want, they shouldn’t hurt us.” Naruto turned to make out the other shoppers lined against the wall to his right.

A boy with a spiky brown ponytail was sitting with his elbows on his knees, a blonde girl huddled next to him muttering something about how this was all his fault. The brunette noted exasperatedly, “Troublesome.”

An older woman, her face showing uncountable wrinkles, had her arm wrapped around a small, frightened boy. He was probably her grandchild, and tears ran down his face as he clutched the lady’s sweater.

The person on the end was another young boy, no older than thirteen, but he looked more angry than scared. He was slumped with his arms crossed over his chest, brown hair spiked up in various directions. A blue scarf was wrapped around his neck, creating a tall collar.

Then, of course, to Naruto’s left was the black haired boy. He looked inappropriately bored with the whole situation, his face betraying no expression.

Facing the blond man to his right, Naruto nodded. “Agreed. These people could get hurt if we try to pull anything.” He paused to take in the man’s appearance. He looked sort of familiar, with shoulder length pointed blond hair and calm blue eyes. Furrowing his brow, Naruto tried to think, but the man’s eyes suddenly widened.

“Wait, I’ve seen you.” He looked around quickly, as if to make sure nobody was eavesdropping. “You’re that kid, the Fox.”

Naruto felt his face go pale.

 


	5. Grocery Store Hold-Up

Chapter 4: Grocery Store Holdup

 

Minato was a little more than surprised to find himself a hostage in a small grocery shop a few blocks from his apartment. All he wanted was some food (at that thought, his stomach gurgled). However, his astonishment grew when he discovered that the scrawny teenager thrown down next to him was none other than the Fox, the slippery pickpocket about whom the cops at the police station had warned him.

The boy certainly looked like the picture Ebisu had shown him: a long patched coat over raggedy orange pants, scruffy hair tucked into a newsboy cap. It was so dirty he could hardly tell if it was blond or light brown. His most striking feature, probably due to the fact that his clothes were all faded and worn, were his bright blue eyes. They seemed familiar, like Minato had seen them in a different color but matching intensity, but the off-duty officer couldn’t place where.

When he mentioned the nickname ‘Fox’, the shabby boy visibly paled and looked to the sides with wide eyes, as if to say, ‘Who, me?’

Whispering so the arguing robbers wouldn’t hear, Minato chuckled and reassured, “Don’t worry; I’m not going to turn you in. I’m a little busy at the moment.”

Although his tense shoulders loosened, the boy clearly didn’t fully believe him. “But you’re like a cop, right? Only cops call me that.” he asked in an equally quiet voice.

“I’m off duty. Besides, it’s not my job to catch you, or whatever they want to do. I’m just here temporarily.”

If the Fox still seemed skeptical he didn’t say so. Instead, he observed the robbers. The girl was still throwing insults at the fat one, while the blue haired one shoved money from the cash register into a black bag, the cashier slinking off to the side. The last man had his gun pointed menacingly at the old lady and her grandson, who cried into each other’s shirts, providing incentive for everyone to remain still.

Naruto’s jaw clenched at the sight of someone threatening an innocent lady and child, but he knew if he tried to jump up the thugs would probably start shooting everyone.

Hearing a stifled yawn from his left, he looked over to see the black haired boy sitting with his elbows on his knees as if this happened to him every day.

“You seem awfully relaxed,” Naruto accused.

The boy didn’t even spare him a glance. “These guys are a joke. Nothing will happen as long as we don’t do anything stupid; why worry?”

What was this guy, a robot? Didn’t the innocent lives at stake pull his heartstrings at all? “Well, Your Stoniness, I hope you’re right.”

Finally, the boy looked at him, although it was with a raised eyebrow. “Stoniness?”

“Yeah, ‘cause you seem to have the emotional range of, like, a rock. Besides I don’t know your name.”

After a moment, he replied, “Sasuke. And I have more emotions than a rock. Can a rock be bored or annoyed?”

Naruto rolled his eyes. “So you’re an ass.” Sasuke scowled. Man, those dark eyes and hair really reminded him of someone, someone he’d met recently…

Perking up, the blond boy asked, “Hey, your last name isn’t Uchiha, is it?”

Sasuke immediately narrowed his eyes and looked away, hands clenched into fists. So, that would probably be a yes.

Poor kid.

Gaze sweeping the floor, Naruto tried to find the right words. “I’m… I, like, I heard about wh--”

“Just forget it,” Sasuke snapped.

Naruto’s eyes sloped. “But don’t you--”

“Hey, shut up, you!” Tanyuyu approached the pair of boys, giving them the privilege of looking down the barrel of her gun. The meanness in her eyes seemed to be emphasized by her flaming hair. The man who had initially tugged Naruto and Sasuke out of the isle looked annoyed.

“Don’t kill anyone yet, Tanyuyu. We need hostages if the police show up,” he scolded, casually pointing his gun at the defiant kid in the blue scarf.

Tanyuyu rolled her eyes dramatically. “How ‘bout I just kill _you_ , Kidomaru? We’ll get more money if we only split the cash three ways instead of four. Well, more like two ways. Jirobo’s so stupid, he probably wouldn’t notice if we only gave him two bucks. I don’t know why Sakon let him come along.”

“Shut it, both of you!” Sakon brushed some of his blue hair away from his face where it tickled his chin and turned away from the desk clerk, rubbing his forehead exasperatedly. He glanced over at Jirobo, who had shimmied away from the group and opened a bag of chips, trying to quietly stuff them in his mouth, although his loud crunching wasn’t exactly inconspicuous. He noticed Sakon glaring at him and froze mid-bite, mouth hanging open like a dead fish.

“God, I can’t take you guys anywhere.” The hostages lined against the wall didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

As the burglars argued, the nervous clerk inched towards the phone sitting on the desk and discreetly took it off the hook, pressing a dark red button under the number pad. Naruto noticed the man’s actions, and glanced around. The police officer next to him seemed indifferent, but Naruto could see anticipation flashing in his blue eyes as they wandered over the clerk. Sasuke, however, was still frowning at the grubby floor; he was probably irritated about getting dirt on his trousers.

 _Figures that bastard wouldn’t notice. Idiot_.

Watching the man intently while the burglars quarreled, Naruto clenched his teeth when a small voice was transmitted over the line. It was pretty a quiet voice, but all four thieves awkwardly paused their fuming to catch their breath at the same time. A thin silence stretched over the small store. Everyone held their breath as the little voice repeated, “What’s the emergency? Hello? Is there an emergency? We’re sending a unit…”

Naruto tensed as the four people turned to the terrified clerk. He quickly dropped the receiver back on the machine and the voice was cut off. Sakon raised his gun and aimed straight for the man’s head. “You just bought a ticket to your own funeral, trash.”

All the hostages started forward, unprepared to let a fellow human die. Naruto tried to jump to his feet, shouting, “HEY!” An arm shot out and grabbed the back of his coat, yanking him back to the ground as a hand covered his mouth. However, Naruto’s sharp shout had caused Sakon to unconsciously glance over his shoulder towards the source of the sound. His gun went off and clerk cried in pain as blood sprayed from his shoulder. He fell back against the wall, incapacitated.

“You dunce, do you _want_ to get your head blown off?” Sasuke hissed furiously in Naruto’s ear, still holding his jacket in an iron grip.

Naruto squirmed against him, replying, “That man just like got shot, bastard!”

“Just in the arm, he won’t die.”  
“He might have, if I hadn’t jumped up!”

“You don’t know tha--”

Their whispered argument was cut short once again as sirens sounded from outside. Fortunately, the police station, being only a few blocks down, had dispatched a team right away.

The crooks grabbed the money and, still pointing their guns at the hostages along the wall, hastily scampered towards the front door. Sure enough, two squad cars were parked outside, sirens blaring. Some officers were already behind the cars, guns aimed at the door. Upon seeing the four masked people through the glass, the cops seemed somewhat startled. Regaining his composure, the officer in charge shouted, “Put down any weapons you have and exit the building with your hands in the air!”

“Goddammit, this is your fault Sakon. If we’d just killed everyone in the first place, we wouldn’t have wasted time getting them to sit down and shit. I’m gonna kill you, I swear.” Tanyuyu vowed as they scuttled away from the door, out of the firing range of the police. She stumbled over a display of air fresheners, swearing like a sailor as she kicked away the rolling cans.

Sakon just narrowed his eyes, looking up and down the hostages like a hungry wolf trying to find the weakest sheep. “Shove it. We’ve still got a few cards to play.” Without warning he reached down and snatched the boy with the scarf, who shouted in protest. However, a gun pointed at his temple quieted him soon enough.

This time even Sasuke leaned forward. A little boy was different from some decrepit man; he still had a life to live. If Naruto leaped forward again, he wouldn’t stop him.

Surprisingly enough, although he tensed, Naruto _didn’t_ try another rescue. There was no way he could cover that amount of ground in time to save the boy with the scarf; Sakon would just shoot him in the head, point blank.

With his free arm wrapped around the boy’s neck, Sakon exclaimed, “Listen up, dirt bags. Any of you move, and this kid gets a nice souvenir in his head.” Everyone tensed, but no one moved except the blond police officer. He raised his hands, saying “Listen, maybe we could working something out. There no nee--” He froze when Sakon cocked the gun at the kid’s head.

Sakon nodded to Kidomaru, who followed suit and yanked the older boy with the spiky ponytail of the line. He actually didn’t seem too frightened, but the blonde girl, presumably his girlfriend, latched onto his shirt sleeve, eyes wide. “No, Shikamaru! Leave him alone, please!” she pleaded, but Kidomaru shoved her back.

“Troublesome… I’ll be fine, Temari,” the spiky haired boy reassured, even as a gun was placed next to his head. Temari hesitated for a moment, then sat back down, defeated.

Naruto let his eyes dart around the area, trying to find anything useful. Several bags of bread were knocked off a shelf, a few cans of air freshener had rolled over to Sasuke’s feet, and someone had dropped a ring of keys. A plan forming in his spiky blond head, he nudged Sasuke. The pale boy looked down to see who touched him, meeting Naruto’s blue eyes. Naruto gestured to the can at his feet with his head, slowly pulling his feet underneath him. The blond man next to his glanced at them from the corner of his eye.

He could see Sasuke’s jaw clench after a few seconds, probably as he realized Naruto’s plan. Sasuke paused, then nodded in agreement.

The boy in Sakon’s grasp glared defiantly at his captor as he struggled feebly against the iron grip. “You’re gonna be sorry, snail snot!”

Sakon, however, was less than amused. He returned the butter melting stare and pressed the gun harder against the boy’s head. “No, _you’re_ gonna be sorry when your brains are splattered against the wall.” He raised the gun for a moment and shot the ceiling, making everyone flinch, and then pointed the barrel at the boy’s head again.

Tanyuyu peeked out the glass door as another police car arrived.

The boy faltered, then found the strength to brashly retort, “You can’t kill me. I’m the mayor’s grandson. He’ll make sure you stay in jail for the rest of yo--”

Tanyuyu took aim and fired through the door, putting a hole through the glass. Several people jumped at the sudden sound, but Sakon just kicked Tanyuyu away from the door as fire was returned. “You dumb broad!”

Naruto saw his chance. He leaped up, ignoring a surprised interjection from the blond police officer. Sasuke kicked the can of air freshener over, which Naruto scooped up as he jumped at Sakon. Sakon moved to shoot Naruto, but the boy was already on top of him, bowling both the robber and his hostage to the ground. Finding the eyeholes in Sakon’s mask, Naruto quickly sprayed the air freshener in his eyes, grabbing the boy by his scarf and pulling him away.

Sakon roared, flailing on the ground. Tanyuyu, who had been accidentally pushed back by Sakon, regained her footing. She rushed the two boys, gun in hand. They scrambled to get to their feet, caught in a tangle of limbs.

A figure moved past them, stopping Tanyuyu with a jab to her throat. The blond officer had followed Naruto’s lead, trailing a few feet behind, and was now putting Tanyuyu into what looked like some variation of a headlock.

As soon as Naruto had jumped up, Shikamaru, the other hostage, had taken advantage of Kidomaru’s temporary distraction. Naruto caught him twisting Kidomaru’s arm in a painful direction. Dropping her tearful act, Temari rushed to his aid. Jiribo was nowhere to be seen as the other three gunmen were pinned on the ground.

A squad of officers streamed through the door as soon as they saw that they weren’t in danger of being shot, and the until-recently hostages stepped back to let them cuff the trio, who were swearing like drunkards.

After a quick glance at the others, Naruto hurried over to where the store clerk had fallen behind the counter, arm clutching his bloody shoulder and groaning. The young boy knelt beside the elder, pulling his scarf out of his pocket and pressing it to the wound to stop the bleeding, murmuring calming words.

Thankfully, the blond officer had noticed his movements, and quickly directed the first aid officer to the pair. Naruto stepped back to let the trained professional do his work, thinking about how best to make a quick disappearance.

H - O - M - E

Minato massaged his temples, leaning back against the wall. He must be the most unlucky man in the world to be caught up in a robbery his second day in town. That, or Konoha was just disgustingly crime-ridden, which unfortunately seemed equally likely.

After he directed the medic to the injured man, the Fox stepped back and stood next to him, hands stuffed into the pockets of his dirty coat. Minato cocked an eyebrow, shaking his head. “You’re a crazy kid, you know.”

The blond boy simply shrugged, mouth twitching into a mischievous grin. Minato glanced back over at the paramedics helping the old man as they loaded him onto a stretcher.

“But still, that man owes you hi--” When he turned back the boy was gone. Minato turned around in a circle to look for him when a hand clasped his shoulder.

“Officer Namikaze, right?” The policeman was stout with a toothpick hanging off his bottom lip. “Chief told me ‘bout you. I’m his partner, Genma Shiranui.” He held out a hand, which Minato shook. “Sorry you had to get caught up in this. These guys have been hitting up little stores all across town, but we knew we’d get ‘em soon.”

 _More like that old man’s courage ‘got ‘em’._ Minato didn’t voice his thought, instead smiling and nodding. “Of course. And I’m sure you have similar incidents under control.”

“Naturally. I’m glad you don’t see a problem here.” Genma dipped his head, and parted with, “Your next milk-run will prove uneventful, I’m sure.”

As the officer departed, Minato grimaced. The whole exchange was fishy; clearly Genma knew they had a problem with their law enforcement and thought that Minato would cover up for them. Not that Minato would stick his nose into another city’s business, but… well, yeah he would. Before, he had a creeping suspicion but this little conversation piqued his concern over the police force here. Unfortunately, he didn’t quite have time to focus on exposing any present corruption with the big Tailed Beast heist.

He snatched a half gallon of milk from the refrigerated shelf and held it up. “Any way I can ring this up?”

H - O - M - E

There was a crowd of bystanders gathered outside, drawn by the gunshots and sirens. Naruto slipped through the throng of people like a trickle of water through rocks, neatly passing everyone without even bumping them. He was sure he saw the kid with the scarf covered in an orange shock blanket, talking expressively with an officer. The kid caught his eye. Distracted, he almost ran into a surprised girl in a black pea-coat. Swerving around her, a quickly muttered an “Excuse me” and scurried away.

Once sure he had successfully bypassed any hidden officers, Naruto slowed to a stop a few blocks from the convenience store and the sirens, brushing a blond lock behind his ear as he caught his breath. So many violent occurrences had been happening lately.

Leaning against the brick wall behind him, Naruto wiped beads of sweat from his brow, wondering if they were really from the exercise. His elbow bumped the lump in his chest.

 _Oh yeah, that glass fox_. He meant to figure out what it was; that blond police officer might have been a good guy to give it to, but it was too late now. He also realized that he left his scarf with the old man. Oh well.

“Hey! HEY!” The interrupting sound of scurrying feet that accompanied the immature voice neared as Naruto focused his eyes on the approaching figure. It was that stubborn brown haired kid from before, his blue scarf trailing behind him like a banner.

When he caught up to Naruto, he stopped and bent over to put his hands on his knees, panting after the run. “Hey, why’d you run away?” he asked when he had regained his breath. Thankfully, before Naruto could answer, he continued, “You were super awesome back there! Man, the way you just threw yourself at the guy like a-- like a… missile or something! It was so awesome! You’re like a ninja!” The kid swung his arms about to emphasize his point, eyes gleaming in excitement. Naruto felt a blush rise in his cheeks; this kid was really impressed by him?

“You’ve gotta teach me some of that stuff!”  
Naruto raised his eyebrows, before putting his hands up in front of him. “Whoa, whoa, don’t get ahead of yourself.”

“What’s the problem?” The kid put his fists on his hips, pouting.

“Well, for starters, I don’t even know your name, or anything else about you. And you don’t know anything about m--”

“My name’s Konohamaru Sarutobi and I’m thirteen and my favorite color’s blue. What about you?”

Naruto blinked at the speedy interruption and expectant look. “Uh… my name’s Naruto. I’m almost sixteen and my favorite color is orange.” He grinned cheekily, gesturing to his patched pants.

Sarutobi, huh? He said he was the mayor’s grandson. That meant this kid was related to Asuma Sarutobi, the police chief, and one of the mayor’s sons. Interesting.

Konohamaru chortled for a moment, then stopped abruptly and pleaded, “So now will you show me how to fight like that?”

Naruto put his finger on his chin in mock thought. “Hmm… nope.” he answered. Before Konohamaru could object (he could see the protests ready to spill out of the kid’s mouth), he added, “Fighting’s bad, and people shouldn’t have to do it. Think about it-- if everyone was peaceful, no one would ever get hurt, right?”

“I… I guess so…”

“Good, so you won’t ask me again.” Naruto finished with a conclusive tone. He pushed his hands in his pockets and began to walk away. It was a moment before the still pondering Konohamaru realized he had left. The boy quickly caught up, matching Naruto’s pace.

“Hey Naruto, are you sure you couldn’t teach me just one move? Like, what if I get mugged!”  
They were nearing a grassy expanse, at which they stopped. Naruto sighed heavily, looking at Konohamaru. He could see the steely determination in the kid’s eyes, along with a hint of admiration. Rolling his eyes and smiling, Naruto caved. “What would you want to know?”  
“Like… what would I do it someone grabbed me?” Naruto’s smile faltered. Konohamaru was clearly thinking about how the man had used him as a hostage back at the store. “Well, there are a few things you can do, I guess,” he began, “You can sort of fall down or lean forward to get the person to pitch forward. Then you can either smack his head with your elbows or thrust your own head backwards in his nose-- that one hurts a lot.” He knew from the memory of pained howls that had erupted out of a mugger who had thought Naruto was easy prey a while ago. “Or you can stomp on their toes. You might be a little small, but you can also hook your foot around their leg and yank forward while leaning back. That’ll bring both of you to the ground.”

Konohamarus’s eyes sparkled as Naruto explained different ways of taking people down, and it was no surprise when he asked to try it.

Naruto nodded, adding, “As long as you don’t break my nose or anything. Not that you could it if you wanted to.” He muttered the last part, taking a position behind the young brunette and grabbing him in an only half menacing way. “Ooh, I’m going to steal all your socks. Now what?” He waited to see what Konohamaru would do, resolving to let him win the first round.

Since Naruto was small as well, Konohamaru decided to go with the tripping action. He brought up his right foot and curled it around Naruto’s right knee, pulling his leg forward and leaning backward.

His actions were a bit unsure, and although Naruto could have then turned left and thrown the boy to the ground, he stood still and let himself be pushed onto his back with an exaggerated “Oomf!”

Rolling off of the blond, Konohamaru lay in the grass and said, “You let me do that, didn’t you.” It wasn’t a question.

Naruto crossed his legs and put his hands behind his head. “Maybe a little. You’ve got the right idea, you just have to be quicker and more sure of yourself. A real mugger isn’t gonna give you much time to react, or a second chance. If you’re gonna try a move, you’ve gotta commit. You can’t have doubts.”

He could count on one hand the number of times he hadn’t completely committed to a move when trying to make an escape. After a few times and more than a few injuries, Naruto had quickly learned not to doubt himself.

“Try again?”

H - O - M - E

Minato arrived at the station early the next day with a large caffeinated coffee in hand, stifling a yawn. He had had a hard time getting to sleep last night, his thoughts plagued by the Fox. Even though he had seen a picture of him beforehand, meeting him in person was a different deal. To be honest, he had expected some thieving, conniving little brat who had been kicked out on the streets by some orphanage because he was deemed unadoptable. He couldn’t have been farther from the truth. The pure benevolence and compassion radiating from the boy proved him dead wrong, in a good way. And Minato couldn’t help but feel that something was familiar about the boy, like he had seen that determined glint his intense eyes and wide, mischievous grin somewhere before. After learning that the Fox wasn’t as bad as he thought, he couldn’t help his intensifying curiosity.

His encounter with the Fox had left him surprisingly pensive; the circumstances of their meeting also might have affected him. Although Minato, being a police officer, often got caught up in violent situations, he had never found himself a victim of one until yesterday. Usually he was the cop busting down the door, gun in hand, rescuing the innocent children from the hostage situation. Being a hostage himself was an odd feeling, like he should have been more alert. Then maybe the cashier wouldn’t have gotten shot.

Troubled by thoughts of what he could have done and plagued by images of the curiosity-piquing Fox, Minato had found sleeping to be a futile effort. Instead, here he was, at the station three hours early, droopy eyed and weary.

Taking a long swig of his coffee to push away the morning chills, Minato wasn’t at all surprised to find the station mostly empty, save for the odd desk manager huddled in a corner, taking notes about how nothing had happened in the past two hours.

Yesterday, Kakashi had taken the honor in showing him around the station. The building itself was a medium size, but number of on-duty employees who were actually _working_ was disturbingly small. Most were on the phone with friends, playing tic-tac-toe with their desk partner, or lounging in the… well, lounge.

To Minato, it seemed that the lounge was the most well-kept room in the station.

He made his way down the hallway to the room in question, planning on either poring over notes or taking a nap, when his eye caught a familiar tuft of gray, gravity-defying hair. Minato had nearly missed it, since the man was hunched so far over that it looked like he was sleeping. The only observation to say otherwise was the quiet scratching of a pencil against paper.

The man was writing a hefty paragraph, the script nearly illegible, and he was so engrossed in his work that he hadn’t noticed the intruder yet. Minato moved a bit closer, peeking over the desk to see at what Kakashi was scribbling away.

It seemed that Kakashi still hadn’t noticed him yet, and Minato was having trouble quelling his curiosity. He tiptoed over to Kakashi’s desk, peeking around the shock of hair to see the work underneath. There was a faded yellow folder stuffed to the seams, partially hidden under Kakashi’s arms, the contents spilling out. Minato raised his eyebrows a bit when he saw a few photos, fuzzy and distorted as if taken from a security camera, which they probably had been. Even if the intricate details were unclear, there was no mistaking those orange pants or tattered coat.

There were pages of notes scattered across the workplace as well, but Kakashi’s handwriting, a loopy scribble, was hard to read upside down. In fact, it was probably hard to read right side up.

“Do you ever sleep?” Minato announced his presence quietly, nonchalantly taking a deliberate sip of his steaming coffee. He wished he had a camera to catch Kakashi’s reaction. The man nearly jumped out of his pants at Minato’s voice and somehow his pen vaulted across the room, hitting the wall with a hollow tap and rolling across the floor. Kakashi hastily drew together the scattered papers in a pile, which he tried to hide under his arms. He quickly slapped what he probably considered an unsuspicious smile across his face, eyes winking closed to complete the ‘innocent’ expression.

Minato didn’t buy it. “What are you working on?”

“Mr. Namikaze. I wasn’t expecting you so early...” Minato could almost hear the unsaid _or anyone for that matter_. Kakashi’s voice betrayed no surprise or worry, simply boredom. “Are you always so punctual?”

“You can just call me Minato. And you didn’t answer my question,” Minato replied with a tone that said ‘I may sound innocent but I’m your superior officer so you’d better give me what I want’.

Waving his hand, Kakashi exclaimed quickly, “Contrary to popular belief, my shift does in fact have an ending point. And no, I don’t sleep in the station.”

Minato narrowed his eyes in half-mock irritation. “I meant my second question.”

“…Oh, oh, this? I was just looking up some old case files on that kid Ebisu told you about yesterday. Just little grunge work, nothing for a high ranking officer to worry about.” If Kakashi was trying to be as suspicious as possible, he was succeeding. He just sat there silently with that fake smile on his face, waiting for Minato to nod and say okay and be on his way. Unfortunately for him, the blond investigator was way too nosy to mind his own business.

“I saw him yesterday, during that hold-up at the convenience store. He didn’t seem as bad as Ebisu made him out to be.” Minato set his coffee down on a clear space of Kakashi’s desk, leaning against the dark wood.

“Oh, you were there?” He didn’t sound surprised at all. “No wonder the situation was handled so quickly. Zetsu and I had to start gathering files for the trials… the kid was there, hm? Wasn’t technically in the report.” The way he stressed ‘technically’ made Minato suspect that Kakashi knew more than he let on.

“Oh?”

“A girl we interviewed, Miss…” Kakashi pulled a binder out from his pile of junk and flipped through a few pages. “Miss Suna, said there was a kid in a long brown coat and orange pants who was quite helpful in apprehending the criminals, along with a few other choice people whose names I figured were better left unknown for a couple days.” His gray eyes bored into Minato’s during the last part of his statement, amusement glittering in their half-closed depths.

Minato sheepishly nodded his thanks. Not that he didn’t like helping people out, but he didn’t feel like getting his name printed in the Konoha Gazette; he was pretty well known in Harbour City, and it wouldn’t help his case if everyone knew he was here just yet. The thought of providing witness statements and carrying through with court trials was troublesome.

Moving the subject back to Konoha’s Most Wanted, Minato asked more quietly, “so, what exactly was the kid charged with?”

Kakashi’s smile disappeared in a flash, and he answered reluctantly, “Second degree murder.”

Minato tried to imagine the bright, optimistic kid he had met as being a cold killer, but the two seemed to go together like orange juice and tooth paste. Thinking back to Kakashi’s and Ebisu’s argument the previous day, Minato believed Kakashi agreed. “And you think he’s innocent?” he asked to be sure.

“There were no eye witnesses or indications of premeditated malice from the boy…” Kakashi said almost hesitantly, like he was withholding something.

Minato looked over his shoulder to make sure they were alone and leaned forward. Kakashi complied and, with a quick glance around, murmured, “I’ve spoken with him personally. I have no way to prove it, especially after so much time has passed, but he’s innocent. I know it.” The resolution in his voice was almost enough to convince Minato.

“Can’t he just explain his side of the story before a court?”

Kakashi shook his head. “You don’t know how it works around here. You should understand, he’s been living on the streets for a while, afraid since the beginning that if he went to the police he’d end up in jail; that’s how kids think, you know. That means he’s been stealing from people and basically unintentionally tarnishing his reputation, especially amongst the police. The longer he’s out there, the worse it looks for him. The officers here hate him because they’ve never been able to catch him and put him on trial. Do you think they’d really accept his story? He doesn’t have any proof either, besides his word. And what’s the word of some teenage delinquent against the whole police department? Well, almost the whole department.”

Minato held Kakashi’s hopeless stare before casting his eyes down. “If I had the time to spare, I would help, really. But I’m only here until I solve the case.”

“It might take a while.”

“I’m sure it will, but that doesn’t mean I’ll have the time to go running after a kid that no one has ever been able to ca— hey, how did _you_ talk to him?”

Kakashi shrugged. “I was in the park with an old friend, who he apparently knew. It must have been… around a year and a half ago. He came running up to talk to him, and said that he liked my hair. It took a while, but I managed to get a story out of him. Of course, this was after years of him being on the run. You see, his case was intensely pursued for a few years, then sort of half forgotten. He would still steal stuff and we would still try to catch him, but it was only half-heartedly. No one really worried, as long as he didn’t kill anyone.” Minato noted that he didn’t add _else_. “His case came up again recently, a few months ago, when he broke out the station.”

“He _what_?”

“He broke out of the station.”

“Why was he _in_ it? I thought you said nobody has ever been able to catch him!” Minato furrowed his brow in confusion and scratched his eyebrow.

 “I said nobody has ever been able to catch him _and_ _put him on trial_ ,” Kakashi shook his head. “There have been a few times someone caught him and put in him one of our cars, but that kid’s as slippery as a fish. He always manages to escape before the car makes it to the station, something that irks Asuma to no end. When he finally got the kid here, I thought he was about to explode from delight. Anyway, I think the kid _let_ us take him here.” He lowered his voice at the end of the theory, as if talking about some conspiracy.

“Why would he do that?”

Kakashi leaned back and shrugged. “I tried asking about it, but he never gives me a straight answer. Sometimes he just runs away when I bring it up; it’s not like I could catch him.”

Minato took a sip of his coffee, swallowing slowly. As the pocket of warmth crept down his chest, he thought about what the Fox had to gain by coming to the station. “Did he steal anything?”

“Nope. At least, that’s what the record says. I wasn’t actually here when he broke out, but I heard he had quite a tumble with Asuma before jumping out a second story window or something, which probably why Asume doesn’t mention it much. He doesn’t want to admit that the famed Fox slipped right through his fingers, and is the reason his nose is a bit crooked. It’s embarrassing.”

The two officers sat in rumination for a few moments. Suddenly, the phone rang on the desk in the corner, causing both men to start.  Kakashi rolled his chair over and picked up the receiver. “Konoha police department…huh? ... Oh, no, he’s not in yet. I can tell him you--… ah, well, I’m afraid I don’t know his personal schedule. He should be here in a few hours… Okay, thanks.” Kakashi dropped the receiver, rolling back over to his own sloppy desk. He grabbed a scrap of paper and scribbled a note on it.

“A message?” Minato asked curiously.

Kakashi looked up with bored eyes. “Ah, no. Zetsu’s stepbrother called for him. I didn’t even know he had much of a family-- he’s never mentioned them. Probably trying to be all mysterious, having the desk in the back corner and all.” Slapping the note to the wall behind him, Kakashi stretched a piece of tape over the paper to hold in place.

The clock on the wall chimed five thirty, reminding the two men of just how early it was. Minato picked up his belongings, finishing up his coffee. “Right. Well, I should probably go get a head start, and leave you to _not_ investigate the possible innocence of an accused murderer.” He twitched an eyebrow at the silver haired man, heading to the lounge.

H - O - M - E

Half of the morning was spent preparing vague statements about the disappearance of the Tailed Beasts to give to reporters when the news crews came knocking, which he knew they would eventually. The other half was spent organizing sheets and packets of gathered information, courtesy of the criminology department. After all the papers were collected and arranged, they could be easily reviewed by order of topic, instead of trying to absorb the myriad information all at once.

Minato sat in the lounge, since Asuma had still failed to get him an office. Runners would routinely bring him papers, which he arranged neatly for later examination. He currently had his work spread all across one of the coffee tables, irking some of the officers whose ‘usual spots’ were unavailable.

Zetsu insisted that they keep the investigation team to a bare minimum, for the safety of the Konoha citizens, reducing the number on on-site investigators to three— Minato, another investigative officer named Tenzo Yamato, who usually worked night shifts but would be joining the land of the living tomorrow morning, and Zetsu himself. Minato and Tenzo reluctantly agreed, sacrificing their nights (and days) of sleep for the well-being of the city.

 

Taking his lunch break, Minato decided to skip the meal in favor of furthering his investigation. After skimming a pamphlet he had taken from the station giving all the public bus routes, Minato clambered aboard one of the large, crowded vehicles. The ride was spent chatting with a kind old lady, who introduced herself as ‘Granny Chiyo’, about the annoyances of dropping stitches while knitting. Although it was more than possible that they would never meet again, he hoped she wouldn’t relay his hobby to anyone else, especially someone he knew. His ears turned red at the thought of Kakashi mocking him, but the embarrassment faded into remorse when he thought of someone else who used to poke fun at this particular leisurely pursuit of his. He wondered if she was still in the city, if she knew he was here, if she remembered him, if she cared…

Sighing, Minato got off at his stop— the library. It was a large and majestic building, if a bit unkempt. Ivy crawled up the sides and in between the bricks and the lawn looked like it could use a mowing; the windows, a washing. Wind whistled harshly through the locks of blond hair that poked out from beneath his police cap, and bit his cheeks until they turned red with a blush.

He pushed his way through the heavy door, a warm gust of air pulling him inside. The library was dimly lit with a heavy atmosphere filled with hushed whispers and settling dust. Making his way to the catalogue, he quickly found the section he was looking for. He wound his way around shelves and tables to an uninhabited corner, meandering slowly down the aisle.

When the first armored trucks carrying the Tailed Beasts had been attacked, the Konoha City Police Department knew almost immediately that they didn’t have anyone with enough training or experience to quickly handle the situation. Minato had been called only a day after the event, giving him a mere two days to gather what he needed and get over here. He was used to being recruited for an investigation on short notice, but this case was exceptional. Though he was reluctant to admit it, he had very little knowledge of what the Tailed Beasts actually were. It was widely known that they were an extremely rare and priceless collection of diamond statues, but when asked why they were so rare and valuable, most people would shrug and change the subject to something they were more familiar with.

Minato didn’t have the luxury of shrugging. He had to know exactly when and where they were carved, for what purpose, and, most importantly, _why_ someone would go to the lengths of using grenades and machine guns to obtain them. Were they that valuable, or did the perpetrators want the fame?

The cop pulled a particularly hefty and disused book from its shelf, probably untouched since it was placed there who knows how long ago. Titled tackily A Collection of Collections, he half expected the yellowed pages to tumble out of the binding. Swiftly searching through the index for anything relating to _Tailed Beast_ , he held the book in one hand and flipped through the pages with the other. There were only a few pages containing those keywords, near the middle of the text.

Blue eyes scanning the yellowed paper, the only information he found began at the bottom of a page:

_The Tailed Beasts were carved over one thousand years ago out of a rare diamond. There were originally nine statues, with a different number of tails on each statue as follows: raccon,1; cat, 2; turtle, 3; monkey, 4; horse, 5; slug, 6; beetle, 7; ox, 8; fox, 9. Each statue has eyes made from a different rare gemstone, and they are considered highly valuable due to the nature in which_

His eyes jumped across the binding to the next page.

_able to bring rain. This historical collection of painted coconuts was passed from generation to generation, each family repainting and caring for their condition, until they were discovered half buried in the site of an old sacrificial temple. The coconuts_

Minato stopped. Coconuts? He went back to the previous page, noting that the sentences didn’t line up. More concerning was the shallow, ragged barely-noticeable strip of paper running between the pages. He stroked his finger down the serrated ribbon, frowning. Someone had very carefully and deliberately ripped the pages out.

H-O-M-E

After Naruto and Konohamaru went their separate ways, Naruto decided to head to the park. Their little sparring session had reopened the cut on his arm, which had freaked out Konohamaru at first, but Naruto had assured him that it wasn’t nearly as bad as it looked.

It throbbed as he sat down and rolled up his sleeve. A pair of college aged students walked by, casting him a concerned look as he wiped the blood away but said nothing as they went past. From his pocket he pulled a roll of bandages and antibiotic. In all the chaos at the store, he’d managed to swipe it. Feeling a little guilty, he wrapped his arm, the white strip already turning pink.

Pulling his patched sleeve back down, Naruto wrinkled his nose when something landed on it. At first he thought it was a bug, but another one landed on his cheek.

“Damn.” He looked skywards and cursed the snow. Snow meant cold and cold meant sick.

He wished he had his scarf to put on, but thought that it served the old man better. Instead he put on his holey glove and turned his coat collar up in an attempt to cover his rosy cheeks. The wind was already picking up and the evil powder was building.

Did it usually snow in October? It seemed a little early, but that would be just his luck. Happy birthday Naruto, you get frostbite!

This sort of weather was best handled in the sort-of-warmth of his abode.

He hurried out of the park, scurrying down side alleys and following closely behind groups of people-- anything to stay vaguely warm.

The population seemed to decrease as he neared the paper mill. He circled around to his usual entrance, the window usually half blocked with planks of wood. He froze.

The window was completely uncovered.

Had the police found him?

Looking around, Naruto advanced slowly, cautiously. The room was still dark. He peeked inside, could make out the shapes of his blankets and wobbly table. The most worrisome object was the box that the glass fox had been in. He could have sworn that he left it right by the blankets in the corner, but it was sitting, open, in the middle of the bare floor.

He stood outside the window, hands on the pane, staring in, trying to think.

“Told you he’d show up.”

Gulping, Naruto slowly turned around. Itachi and Kisame emerged from the shadows around the corner of the building.


	6. The Proposition

Chapter 5: The Proposition

 

Sakura stumbled back when a boy nearly ran into her. He spun around her as smoothly as water around a stone, uttering a quick apology. He was in a hurry and probably didn’t recognize her, but she sure recognized him; her portrait of him had gotten an A- in her art class, a major accomplishment in her eyes (though she thought she deserved an A). What was his name again?

Oh, Naruto! Like the food.

She wondered if he had anything to do with the shooting in the store. The sirens and gunshots had drawn a crowd of bystanders spending their free afternoon around town.

Sakura watched with interest as four people were brought out in handcuffs, searched, and put into police cruisers. Officers led witnesses outside to where two ambulances had pulled up. Paramedics took away a man on a stretcher; the other witnesses were interrogated by police with notepads, some given those gaudy orange blankets.

Two people caught Sakura’s attention.

The first was a boy she recognized from her biology class, Sasuke Uchiha. He looked indifferent to whole situation, as usual. That suave bored look always made him look so mysterious and cool in school, and gained him the attention of most girls and some boys, though he predictably ignored them.

 _Wow, he’s super brave to have been held at gunpoint and not even bat an eyelash._ Sakura knew she sounded like the other girls swooning over Sasuke, but she couldn’t help it.

Her eye was drawn away from Sasuke to a man who for a moment she thought bore a striking resemblance to Naruto. He had the same shock of blond hair and blue eyes, although they seemed quite different beside that. Naruto was short and spindly, round-faced, but this man was a medium height and lean, muscular in all the right ways. If he didn’t look like he was in his early forties, Sakura probably could have swooned over him, too.

 _Maybe that’s Naruto’s dad or uncle. But then why did he run away like that?_ She noticed how he kept glancing around, as if searching for something or someone.

Sasuke finished up with the officer, presumably leaving his phone number and address for further contact, and was shuffling away.

“Hey, Sasuke!”

He looked over. “…Sakura, right?”

“Are you okay? What happened?” He probably didn’t want to talk about it, but her curiosity got the better of her.

“Some weirdoes tried to rob the store. That man over there and some deadbeat jerkwad helped put them down.” They walked together.

“’Deadbeat jerkwad’?”

“Annoying blond guy. Short. Ratty coat.”

“Oh, Naruto. I saw him run away.”

“That’s his name, huh? He looks like he lives in the sewers.”

Sakura looked at her shoes. “I talked to him in the park the other day. He said he can’t afford school. But he seemed smart enough. Did you know him in elementary school?”

Sasuke huffed. “I went to private elementary and middle schools. I would be in a private high school now, but my aunt insisted I meet ‘normal’ people.”

“Ah.” They walked in silence for a bit. _Shit, say something Sakura! You’re being totally awkward._

“You know, I’m glad you don’t chatter constantly,” Sasuke said eventually. “Most people talk on and on about pointless stuff.”

 _That’s only because I’m too stupid to think of something to say._ “Well, I just talk in my head a lot.”

The corner of Sasuke’s mouth twitched.

 _And now he thinks I’m crazy. Good going, Sakura_.

“How do you know him?” Sasuke asked, interrupting her inner scolding.

“Eh? Know who?”  
“Naruto.”

“Oh. I was in the park drawing the fountain in the garden, and he was sleeping on a bench. He woke up and we just kind of started talking. He seems nice enough. A little quirky.” She smiled.

“Hn. Sleeping on a bench?”  
“Yeah… wait, you don’t think he’s, like… _homeless_ , do you?”  
“He _was_ pretty dirty.”

Sakura stared at the cracks in the sidewalks as they strolled over them. She felt wretched. “Next time I see him, I’ll invite him to dinner,” she resolved, mostly talking to herself.

Sasuke rolled his shoulders. “I suppose I should feel bad that I ran him over with my bike.”

“You _what_?”

H - O - M - E

“How… how did you find me?!”

Kisame snorted. “You think we don’t know how to follow someone? You’re dumber than a sack of bricks.”

“You don’t know anything about me.” Naruto clenched his jaw.

“You’ll be sixteen on October tenth. You’re charged with the murder of your mother and her domestic partner. You attended Konoha West Middle School for a year and a half. You live in the abandoned paper mill by the river. You are a regular patron of Tsunade’s hospital. You have a friend in the police station. You are in possession of a certain artifact we need. And you have a _very_ interesting box of files, both of which I assume are hidden together,” Itachi drawled. “Shall I go on?”

Naruto paled. “Have you guys been like stalking me?”

“Just think of it as a background check on your resume.”

“I didn’t apply for any jobs recently…”

Kisame rolled his eyes. “C’mon Itachi, you can’t be serious.”

Itachi ignored his partner, reaching into his pocket. Naruto stiffened, but only an envelope was pulled out. “You have something we’re very interested in, Naruto Uzumaki. Three things, actually.” _The fox, the files and… what else?_ “We have a proposition for you.” He held out the envelope, but when Naruto scowled at it without approaching, he threw in on the ground. “Let us know you’re answer tomorrow. I’ll say right now that declining would be bad for your health. And ours.”

And with that they seemed to melt into the shadows. Naruto stood rooted to the spot, the mill at his back and the envelope a couple feet in front of him. It was a regular orange mailing envelope, stuffed so that it barely closed. Somehow it seemed foreboding.

Slowly, he picked it up. Going back inside the mill seemed treacherous now that those creeps knew he lived there, but Itachi had given him until tomorrow. Anyway, it was too late to find another warm safe place to sleep for the night.

After a resigned sigh, Naruto climbed through the window. He felt exposed with the whole window open, so he swept his things off the table and heaved it onto its end to block the streetlight and act as a makeshift barricade.

Sitting in his nest of blankets, he spread the contents of the envelope on the floor.

There was the police file on him, which he was intimately familiar with since he had stolen a copy of it himself.

A detailed file of Kakashi Hatake with two photos of his sitting at his desk in the police station concerned him. They knew that Kakashi was his friend.

There were a couple pages stapled together, labeled _The Tailed Beasts_. Naruto flipped through them. There were a lot of words, which he skimmed. The next page had pictures. Nine pictures of glass animals, front and side views. The last one, he realized with a start, was the Fox in his pocket. _Oh!_

He went back to the previous page and tried to actually read it.

“So the Fox isn’t glass… it’s diamond?! I guess that’s why it’s so heavy. And why those freaks keep trying to get it.” He read the rest of the paper. “Geez.” He sat back to absorb what he read.

He picked up a letter folded inside the packets. Like all the other papers, everything was typed in standard font on regular printer paper.

 

_Mr. Naruto Uzumaki,_

_We understand that your current living circumstances are not ideal and therefore extend a unique business opportunity to you. You have several objects of interest to us, including but not limited to your extensive files on the Konoha Police Department, the Diamond Fox, and yourself._

_We have been observing you for some time and have decided that the time has come to offer you a position amongst our group. Your skills would be highly beneficial to our mission, and our support would benefit you as well._

_As you are obviously well aware, the KPD is a corrupt and disgusting organization, running this city into the ground and destroying the lives of countless individuals. They deny citizens basic rights such as fair hearings and lawyers, and use taxpayer money to stuff their pockets while the lower class rots on the street. We’re sure you can attest to that._

_It is our mission to rid the city of Konoha of these parasites and establish real justice and peace, at the risk of our very own lives. Your information would greatly aid us in our efforts, and you will be handsomely rewarded for your deeds after we bring true peace._

_Itachi will be at the Middle Bridge at four o’clock tomorrow._

_It would be unwise not to take advantage of this generous offer._

_-Daybreak_

Naruto read the letter twice over, letting it sink it. So this freaky organization or gang or whatever wanted to totally destroy the corrupt Konoha Police Department and create their own system for justice. And they wanted him to join. _He_ was the third thing they wanted.

He flipped through the other packets again. The photos of Kakashi at the station seemed to have been taken from another desk, maybe in the corner of the room, which could mean that this Daybreak group had some sort of mole in the station.

Everything Naruto had collected in his files were either from newspapers, various library books or articles, or the police station itself, where an employee could get ahold of it easily enough. So if they had a mole who could infiltrate the police station and get the files himself, why did they need Naruto’s? Something didn’t add up.

If they wanted the glass Fox so badly, Itachi and Kisame could have shot him easily enough and snatched it. Maybe they actually did value him and really wanted him to join; or maybe they thought he had hidden it somewhere, which probably would have been smarter than carrying it on his person. He supposed that not killing him was a sort of way to build trust. The group’s cause, though perhaps distorted, seemed noble enough. If he joined, maybe he could change their ways a bit, so that explosives weren’t involved.

 _No change can come without an uprising_ , he pondered. In school they had learned about civil wars and coup d-etats; all of a sudden Daybreak seemed kind of… reasonable.

“Shit, what am I saying?! I saw them murder people.” Naruto threw down the papers and stood up to pace around his room.

If he didn’t go see Itachi, it was heavily implied that he would be killed and the Fox taken. If he did go to the meeting, they might do just that anyway, though unlikely if he joined them. He moaned in frustration, hands fisting his hair.

He needed help.

H-O-M-E

Kakashi normally walked to the police station. After as Naruto could tell, he didn’t even own a car, probably because walking was healthier and more efficient. Unfortunately, his schedule was irregular, so Naruto wasn’t even sure if he would catch the man anytime in the next week.

After a restless night in the mill, Naruto woke early and, with the Fox and the letter in his pocket, headed out towards the police station. He sat on a bench about a block away, on a street he knew Kakashi usually walked down and waited.

His breath billowed around him like a fog and dead leaves rolled by on a lazy breeze, making him hunch further into his coat. As the sun moved started to rise above the buildings, the number of people and cars increased as everyone headed out to school or work. They passed Naruto as if he were shadow, all ignoring each other in favor of their phones or music players. He observed them from under the brim of his dirty hat, eyes shadowed.

After the crowd had died down around ten o’clock in the morning, Naruto was prompted to abandon his observation spot by a growling stomach. Either Kakashi exceptionally late or exceptionally early today.

Fingering the bit of money he had, Naruto meandered away from the bench. His hunger won over and he took shelter from a nasty burst of wind inside a nearby noodle shop.

Wow, it smelled good!

Mouth watering, Naruto quickly ordered the smallest, plainest (and therefore cheapest) portion of noodles they had, keeping an eye on the window. He eyed some beef flavored noodle dishes, loaded with vegetables, but the price was too steep. His mouth watered while he paid and took his noodles to-go, returning to the bench to slurp them. The steam rising from the container helped negate the wind a little bit as he continued to wait for Kakashi.

Around eleven twenty, two familiar figures appeared on the street. The first was Kakashi, thankfully. The other was the blond police officer that had been in the grocery store. They were chatting, both in uniform. Lunch break, probably.

Naruto stood up and watched as they approached. When the men saw him, they slowed and looked at each other. In a moment of mutual understanding, Kakashi continued forward, while the blond man hung back, hands in his pockets. He had an unnerving, calculating stare that made Naruto feel like the man was seeing inside his conscience.

“Ah, Naruto. Fancy meeting you here. And so awfully close to the police station.” Kakashi drawled.

Naruto could tell from the stiffness in his neck that he was concerned about something. “I need to talk to you.”  
“Obviously.”

“Where to start…Have you heard of the Diamond Fox?”

The blond man suddenly seemed more alert. Kakashi straightened. “Yes. Why?”

“I-I may or may not, like, have it. Before you arrest me, let me explain. I was walking and there was this truck and all of a sudden these crazy people like threw grenades at it and exploded it and I ran over to see if I could help the people inside and the guy gave me this little box and told me to protect it with my life, so I ran and it turned out that the little glass or diamond or whatever Fox statue was inside and now the crazy people who wanted it know I have it and they’re threatening to kill me if I don’t join them and help take down the police department and I don’t know what to do.” He gave his whole explanation in one breath, leaving him gasping.

“Well. This is a… disconcerting turn of events.” An understatement if Naruto ever heard one. Kakashi seemed to be thinking very hard about what to do next.

“Can I give it to you?”  
“What?”  
“Can I give the Fox thing to you? You’re the only person I trust.”

Kakashi took a moment to consider. “You know, I think there’s someone who would be better suited to listen to this.” He turned and motioned for the blond man to come over.

Naruto wrung his wrists as the man came to them with a questioning look.

“Minato, this is Naruto. Naruto, Minato. I believe you are already acquainted. Minato’s clued in; you can trust him.”

Minato’s brow furrowed at something Kakashi said, but he only nodded at Naruto.

Naruto sighed and repeated his story a little more slowly, only telling what happened the night of the truck bombing, leaving out Daybreak’s business proposition. To his credit, the blond man didn’t react much, just took in all the facts with nods and a thoughtful look. Minato reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a little notebook with a pen stuck in the spiral binding. He jotted down some notes as Naruto finished talking.

“So you have the Diamond Fox with you right now?” Minato asked.

Naruto bit his lip, then nodded. Minato tapped his notebook with the pen, and said, “Did you see any of the people that attacked the truck?”

 

“Don’t you want to like, see it?” Naruto gave him a weird look. Everyone besides this guy seemed obsessed with the tiny statue.

“I _want_ you to tell me if you saw the people who attacked the truck.”

“Yeah.” Naruto said skeptically. _Weirdo_. “I saw a couple of them. One was this tall guy with short dark hair that sort of stuck up, like maybe dark brown or black. He had a creepy grin, like he showed too many teeth. The other was Itachi Uchiha.”  
Kakashi started. “Itachi?!”

Minato seemed lost. “Who is Itachi Uchiha?”

“You aren’t from around here, are you?” Naruto said with a grimace.

“I’m actually surprised you haven’t heard of him, Minato. About eleven years ago he butchered his entire family and large group of family friends and business partners in a three hour period. He’s known as the Three Hour Massacre. By the time the police arrived at the crime scenes, he was long gone— well, so they thought. The only survivor was his younger brother, who since grew up in a foster home.” Kakashi explained as Minato wrote down the details of the story.

“I… haven’t kept up on Konoha’s current events since I moved. Okay, can you give me his physical description, Naruto?”

For some reason, Naruto felt a weird chill when the man— Minato— said his name. “Uh, he was like about as tall as Kakashi. Long black hair in a ponytail, weird red goggles, really dark brown eyes. Also creepy, but more like a mysterious-creepy. Both the guys had black bandanas with red and white clouds on them. A gang symbol if I ever saw one.”

Minato nodded, scribbling away. “Do you recall what they were wearing?”

“Besides the bandanas? Not really. It was dark and they were scary.”

“Was there anyone else at the scene?”

“There was a guy on a roof. He had some kind of machine gun and was shooting at the truck after it got bombed. He might have been the one who bombed it, too, but it could have been two people.”  
“Do remember which roof?”  
Naruto sighed. “Um… it was across the street from where the truck was turned over.” He felt unhelpful for not remembering the exact details of where the men were, but the police officer seemed to think otherwise.

“Just as I thought! Thank you Naruto, you’ve been immensely helpful. Is there anything else you can tell me?”

Naruto glanced at Kakashi, who nodded. “The guys came to me. Yesterday. They want me to join them.”

“Join them?”

Naruto nodded and pulled out the letter Itachi had given him. “They gave me this letter. I’m supposed to meet Itachi today.” Minato frowned as he read the letter.

“This Daybreak organization sounds rather threatening, for you and many others,” he said gravely, handing the paper back to Naruto, who folded it back up and stuffed it in his pocket.

“Tch, yeah, understatement of the year, much? At first I thought I would go and tell Itachi to stuff it, but I realized that I _don’t_ want to be horribly murdered. Also, they’d just take the Fox statue and be on their merry way. That’s why I want to give it to Kakashi.”

He clenched his jaw, shrugging his shoulders in irritation. The three thought about the options for a moment.

Then Kakashi said, “You could always accept.”

“What?” Naruto and Minato both said.

Kakashi shrugged. “It might be advantageous to have someone on the inside. A mole, if you will. You can use the Fox to get their trust.”

Naruto gaped like a dead fish while Minato replied angrily, “He’s just a child! This is an extremely dangerous group of would-be vigilantes who have no qualms about murder, and you want to send a boy right into their clutches on the off-chance that they won’t kill him?”

Naruto closed his mouth and thought this through. True, the whole meeting might be a ruse for them to kill him and take the Fox over his dead body, but they could have done that at any point. They had to know that he would go to Kakashi for advice on the troubling offer. What were they planning?

If he did join, he would probably have a hard time informing Kakashi and Minato about their inner-workings. If this Daybreak group could tail him throughout the day and dig up information on his past, they sure as hell could continue tailing him after he ‘joined’. Who was to say there weren’t tailing him right now, watching…

Naruto quick looked around. His sudden apprehension must have shown on his face, because Minato and Kakashi both stiffened and looked around as well.

“What is it?” Kakashi asked.

Naruto looked over his shoulder, but could see no obvious figure lurking in the shadows observing his every move. “Nothing, I just… was wondering if they, like, follow me. They seemed to know a lot about me. Oh!” He remembered the photos of Kakashi from the file. “Someone in the police station is working for these Daybreak freaks!”

Minato’s eyes widened. “What? How do you know?” Minato asked.

“Do you know this person’s name?” Kakashi followed up.

“I don’t know his name. Or her name, I guess. When Itachi gave me this letter, he gave me a folder with a bunch of papers and stuff in it.”

He could see the question forming on Minato’s lips. “Before you ask, I don’t have it on me. But there were photos of the inside of the police station, the office. You were sitting at your desk, Kakashi. It seemed like the pictures were taken from the corner of the room.” Naruto explained.

Unsurprisingly, both Kakashi and Minato seemed deeply troubled by the news, but Kakashi didn’t so much as lift an eyebrow. “You don’t seemed surprised, Kakashi.” Minato commented.

Kakashi and Naruto exchanged uneasy looks. Kakashi answered, “The KPD isn’t exactly void of corruptness. I had my suspicions that one or more people were working double time with some of the gangs in Konoha. There are certain groups who seem to be consistently gaining power, and very few of them end up in jail. The most prominent gangs I can think of in Konoha are Anbu and their sister organization, Anbu Root.”

“So you knew about how deep this corruption ran in the department and remained silent?”

Naruto winced at the accusing tone, but said nothing.

“Who could take my grievances to?” Kakashi said. “I had no way of knowing who was working for whom. To be honest, I suspect Asuma and a few others are tangled into this web somehow, and he’s the mayor’s son. It’s even possible that the mayor Mr. Sarutobi himself is involved. Now it seems that this new group Daybreak has inserted their own mole in the station and caught wind of whatever dirty business is going on, and decided to take matters into their own hands.”

Minato rubbed his forehead.

“So, what, do you want to _let_ Daybreak and the KPD go head to head?’

“What do you propose?”

They shivered, not just because of the winter chill.

“So… should I accept this offer?” Naruto looked to the adults for guidance. They seemed just as lost and insecure as him.

Kakashi just shrugged. “It’s up to you.”  
Minato gave Kakashi a sharp look before telling Naruto, “I don’t think you should. It would be too dangerous. I think the safest thing for you to do would be, well, to leave the city.”

“What?! No way! Konoha sucks sometimes but it’s still my home, and I have to try to help the people here. I’ve seen enough people getting beat up and living on the streets and whatever else to know that if no one tries to stop these sleazy cops and gangs from their rise to power, things will just get worse for the people caught in the middle.”

Minato seemed taken aback by his vehemence.

“I’ve been collecting evidence and stuff so that eventually these creeps will be put in jail and then everyone can have a better life!”

Fierce blue eyes glared at Minato’s own.

Minato’s gaze softened. “Naruto, I don’t think it will be that easy. If the higher authorities like the mayor are really at the center of this corruption, it will be extremely difficult to even get a hearing, let alone go against them in trial and _win_. If it is even possible, it will take years to tear down this web of power, years until the citizens notice a change.”

“But we can still try. You don’t understand how— how _awful_ it is. For everyone. I talk to kids everyday on the streets selling shitty magazines and joints when they should be in school, and they say that the police come to their house and threaten to foreclose unless they pay.”

“Pay what? Rent?”  
Naruto shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. It was something else, like something that made them too scared to talk about what. The most I could ever get out of them was that the police claimed to be providing some sort of extra protection against street gangs, and they demanded some kind of fee. I could see if I can get more details.”

“Do that.” Kakashi said. He glanced at his watch. “Twelve-thirty. We should get going. Naruto, can you show me those files that Itachi gave you?”

Naruto rubbed his forehead. “I suppose. But how?”

Kakashi rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“You could leave them in the library,” Minato suggested. “If you put them in a book that no one is likely to take, then Kakashi can pick them up a little bit later. Plenty of people go to the library, so it won’t be too suspicious either.”

Naruto had to admit that that was a smart idea. He was glad that Minato was on their side, however small their side may be. “Okay,” Naruto nodded. “I’ll have it there by three-thirty. That way if Itachi kills me when I meet him later, it’ll still be there,” he joked. No one laughed. “Like, what book should I put it in?”  
“How about a dictionary? Most people who care enough to look up a word already have one, so it’s unlikely that it will be checked out,” Kakashi concluded.

Naruto nodded. “Okay. Later.”

-H-O-M-E-

Minato was surprised when Naruto darted off so quickly, but he guess he shouldn’t have been.

“Ah, so that’s what he stole from Asuma,” Kakashi said suddenly.

Minato raised an eyebrow.

“When he let Asuma catch him and bring him to the station? He must have been stealing some sort of evidence against the police station. If it incriminated Asuma, then of course it wouldn’t have been put on record. Damn, I should have asked Naruto.”

“I think we have more important things to worry about than Naruto’s secret little box of files. I’m sure he means well, but there’s not much he can do by himself, even if he does have a few sample of incriminating evidence. It’s just like you said: no one will listen to him, even if we could find someone who _wasn’t_ involved in this city-wide power-play. I can’t believe that Mayor Sarutobi would be at the center of something so corrupt.”

“Maybe he is unaware of what his son is doing. We should try to have a conference with him.”

Minato pinched his nose. “Look, I’m… well, I mean, I was _supposed_ to be here temporarily, until the missing Tailed Beasts are found. Once I give the name ‘Daybreak’ to Asuma, he will most likely say that I’ve done my bit and they can take over. Actually, I’m positive he will dismiss me. He doesn’t like my snooping.”

Kakashi chuckled. “Yes, you do stick your nose into other peoples’ business, don’t you? At least we know that the Konoha Police Department and Daybreak aren’t working together. Asuma wouldn’t have brought a specialist like yourself in if they were. You might be their downfall.”

“Somehow that doesn’t make me feel better about any of this.”

They stopped by a sandwich shop and grabbed lunch to-go.

Bags in hand, they walked back to the station, their lunch break nearly finished, although Minato suspected that if they came back a little late no one would bat an eyelash.

Kakashi gave him a sidelong glance. “So…”

“So?”

“What are you going to do?”  
Minato watched his breath billow around his mouth as he exhaled slowly. “I suppose I will continue my investigation.”  
“And the impending face-off between the KPD and Daybreak?”

“We need to stop it.” Minato exclaimed firmly. He had witnessed the aftermath of a Daybreak attack: the craters, the empty rounds, the blood. He had no doubt that Asuma would return fire passionately.

“If we don’t, half the city could be destroyed in the conflict.”

They walked for a few moments in silence, trying not to imagine what the carnage would be like.

Minato tried to think instead about Naruto. The kid was obviously living in poverty, going by the state of his ratty clothes and ridiculously dirty coat. Hell, even his hat looked like it had been dropped in a sewer, then a mud puddle, and finally run over by a truck.

The boy looked like he hadn’t had a bath in weeks. His face was smudged with who knows what, and his hair was so dirty is was difficult to discern the original color. If Minato hadn’t seen the picture of his hair as a light color, he would have found it hard to believe.

But while most of his physical appearance was dulled with dirt and grime, Naruto’s eyes were bright and witty. Their wide, cat-like shape reminded him of her.

He wondered what she was doing now.

“Kakashi.”  
“Hm?”  
“Who...” Did he really want to ask?

Kakashi raised his eyebrows expectantly.

“…um, forget it.”

 

They separated after entering the station to eat their bag lunches over work. Just after Minato sat down in his reserved spot in the lounge and took a bite of his sandwich, another officer approached with his own manila folder under his arm.

“You must be Minato Namikaze. I’ve heard a lot about you. Tenzo Yamato.” Tenzo extended his free hand to shake Minato’s.

“Ah, Officer Yamato. So you’re the one joining me on the field for the rest of this case then?”

Tenzo nodded. “Zetsu dragged me out of the night shift. Apparently we’ll be the only two active detectives on duty for this case, and he’ll handle the correspondences between us and the information coming from the autopsy and forensic labs, witnesses, and basically everyone else. I spent the morning getting caught up on the case.”  
Minato frowned. “So all the information we receive will be through Zetsu.”

Tenzo nodded. “He’s very organized, so it should make our job easier with someone else to sift through what’s important and what’s drabble.”

“Perhaps. As an investigator I found that examining all the data myself makes it easier to anticipate what the perpetrator is planning next.”

“We’ll still get all the information, it’s just—”

“Filtered.”

 “Yeah.”

Minato thought on this for a moment, and decided to look into Zetsu later. All the information Zetsu relayed to him so far had been transported by mousy secretaries; Minato had only met the enigmatic man once to deal with the details of the case, not counting the two times he had been talking to Kakashi and caught Zetsu staring at him openly from the desk in the corner.

“Well, I guess we’d better compare notes then,” Minato conceded, clearing a spot for Tenzo to sit down.

He and Kakashi had decided to keep the information about Daybreak to themselves until they could determine who was loyal to whom. They knew that Daybreak had a mole at the station, but until they could pinpoint who it was, no one could be trusted.

Personally Minato was immediately suspicious of both Zetsu and Tenzo, simply because they were working with him on the Tailed Beasts case; it would be easy enough for one of them to provide phony information or withhold something, making it impossible to gather evidence and make an arrest.

The fact that Asuma had agreed to let them work with Minato seemed to indicate that he trusted both of them, but that wasn’t saying much since a mole’s job was to gain the trust of the person they’re spying on.

There wasn’t any obvious way to tell who the mole was. Naruto said the photos of Kakashi were taken from the corner of the room, which pointed to Zetsu, but it was possible that someone else had taken them with the intention of framing Zetsu.

He and Kakashi would just have to wait until the messed up or Naruto got the information from Daybreak.

“So,” Minato started, opening up his folder to show Tenzo what he’d gathered so far. “You’ve probably already seen most of the information I have. I was at the two crime scenes from the night of the fourth, and gathered that there are multiple culprits working together using some pretty heavy weaponry, including machine guns and grenades.”  


Tenzo nodded. “Yes, I reviewed the photos of the scenes and reached the same conclusions as you: the spray of bullets and angle of impacts indicates rapid fire from the top of the adjacent building, here.” He pointed at a building in one of the pictures.

Minato pulled out a photo of the bandana shred. “I think this may be some kind of gang symbol. So it’s probably an off-the-street organization, maybe hired by someone to collect the Tailed Beasts,” he explained.

“The attackers were all prepared. They knew that the armored trucks were going to drive down these particular streets at these times. That information should have been confidential.” Minato watched Tenzo’s frown closely. “So the question is, how did they get that information?”

Tenzo stared at the pictures on the table. “Someone must have leaked it. Maybe a security guard bragging to someone, or a tapped phone line… or maybe someone handed it over.”

“What do you mean?” Minato asked.

Tenzo shifted in his seat and looked around. There were a couple other officers in the lounge, but they seemed focused on the baseball game showing on a tv in the corner. “Anything can be sold if there’s someone willing to pay.” He said softly.

“You think someone sold the information to these… this gang, for money?”

Tenzo shrugged. “Money, information, power, trust, whatever. The information might have been stolen or it might have been sold. I’m just laying out all the possibilities here.”

Minato steepled his fingers under his chin. “Three of the armored cars brought in the Tailed Beasts from outside of Konoha: two from Rain Valley and one from Rocky Heights. The other one was from Konoha, moving the Fox from a recently-discovered private collection to the museum. It’s possible that the information was gathered from the sources, being the other cities and the private collector, rather than Konoha’s police department.”

“That would mean this group has a very wide reach and influence.”

Minato didn’t like that theory at all.

He was torn on what to tell Tenzo; the Fox—er, Naruto’s eyewitness account revealed that Daybreak’s gang symbol was a black bandana with red and white clouds, but his official investigation had only had the small piece to go from. But knowing what the gang sign was helped immensely in the investigation, so he decided Tenzo needed to know so that they could start searching.

“I did some research during lunch into that bandana piece that we found,” he stretched the truth a little. “I think the original design is either some abstract swirls or clouds.”

Tenzo shuffled through the photos until he found the one of the bandana piece. He examined it with a hum. “We shouldn’t make any assumptions, although I would guess that you’re right.”  
“We’ll get Zetsu to check in with the other two police departments, see if anything fishy happened over there that might have caused the leak, while we go on the street and see if we can’t find out what this gang is.”

Tenzo agreed and went to inform Zetsu while Minato scanned the map he had made of city which showed the crime scenes, looking for a possible connection, or a central point where they could start.  


 


	7. Noodles and Company

Chapter 6: Noodles and Company

 

Naruto returned to the mill. He decided to meet Itachi, but he still wasn’t sure if he would accept the offer. In case he didn’t, and if he somehow made it out alive, he wanted to move his few possessions to a new location.

Daybreak knew he lived at the mill, so they would be waiting for him to return if he declined the offer. He gathered up the bundle of blankets in the corner, tucking inside them the scattered trinkets he had collected over the years. His collection of evidence against the Konoha Police Department was hidden in a different location.

Clutching the bundle in his arms, he did a final sweep of the dirty room.

Nothing else worth taking.

It was about two o’clock.

Once out on the street, he was careful to duck into the nearest alley whenever he saw a police car approach.

He was unsure of where to go.

The city suddenly seemed so much bigger. The mill had been his safe place for the past few years, a place of solitude and comfort to return to after a tiresome day, where he could wrap himself in his blankets and forget about the hunger for a little while, imagining the arms of his mother around him.

He missed her.

Her laugh, her mischievous eyes glistening with a playfulness that was mirrored in his own.

Her frilly apron, splattered with grease and flour and sauce, each stain a reminder of the meals they ate together, the jokes they shared over grilled cheese and tomato soup on a cold day.

Her bedtime stories, admissions that sometimes monsters do exist in the closet or under his bed, but as long as he faces them, they can’t hurt him (lo and behold, every time he peeked under the bed or wrenched open the closet door, there were no monsters to be found; they were hiding from him).

_Remember this, Naruto: monsters might be scary to you, but you can be scary to them, too. It’s alright to be afraid, but you have to stand up to them. When you fight back, they get scared and run away._

He knew his mother was a prostitute. Usually she would go out to do business, but occasionally his mother brought home men who stayed with them for a while, maybe to fill the noticeable gap where his father had left in his heart when he left her. None lasted more than a few weeks. They all left her, left him.

Some had been kind to him, ruffled his blond hair and called him ‘sport’ and helped him with homework.

Some hit him and called him ‘whoreson’. His mother ejected those ones immediately.

They came and went like the seasons. Inevitable.

Except the last. He stayed for seven months.

H - O - M - E

_Naruto dropped his backpack near the front door. All he wanted was a snack and a nap, after a particularly hellish day filled with pre-algebra and history tests, and a nasty public rejection from a girl after he asked her out._

_The tv was on in the den._

_He thought about asking his mother’s boyfriend how to properly ask a girl on a date, because he was obviously doing something wrong. But he decided against it, because Kurama would probably just tell him there was no hope for a loser like him._

_He stood indecisively in the front hall. He wanted to go hide in his bedroom, but that required walking past the den, where Kurama undoubtedly had his eyes glued to some violent show like wrestling, but was probably not engrossed enough to miss Naruto sneaking past. As much as Naruto hated to admit it, the man was cunning._

He would have heard me come in anyway. _Naruto went to the kitchen and opened the cupboard. His mom had all sorts of fancy cooking spices and oils and wines, but seemed to forget to buy bread or crackers. And imagining Kurama making a shopping trip was laughable. He heard gun shots from the tv in the adjacent room._

_“You there, brat?” The gruff voice pounded against Naruto’s ears like boulders._

_“Yes.”_

_“Bring me a beer. The Jack Daniels, none of that Corona shit.” He was already drunk._

_Naruto didn’t bother telling the man that Jack Daniels was in fact whiskey, rather than beer, because he didn’t want a broken finger._

_He grudgingly poured some of the requested drink into a glass and brought both the glass and the bottle to the den, where Kurama was lounging in the ratty recliner. Some kind of action movie blared on the tv, showing a man punching another man until his face looked like chunky tomato soup._

_Naruto placed the drinks on the little table next to the recliner. Kurama grabbed the glass, downing it in two gulps and belching. “Thanks kiddo, you’re a real hero.” Naruto wasn’t sure a person could sound more sarcastic if their life depended on it._

_“Where’s mom?”_

_“Whadya think? Out whoring around like the slut she is. Makin’ cash, takin’ names, whatever. I bring in most of the dough around here away, but as long as she’s back to make dinner and have a little fun after, I’m not gonna complain if she wants pocket money to buy glitter hairspray or some shit. As long as it doesn’t stink up my house.”_

_Naruto turned away so the man wouldn’t see the resentment sculpted on his face in an upturned lip and a downturned brow._ It’s _not_ your house.

_“But hey, if she’s not back tonight, I guess I’ll make do with you again, eh fag?” He chortled into the second drink he poured, gurgling._

_Naruto left quickly._

_He went back to the hall, grabbed his backpack, and locked himself in his room, barring the door with everything he had the strength to move._

_H - O - M - E_

_As soon as he heard his mom come home, he quickly moved all the furniture back to their original places and emerged to see her hanging up her jacket in the closet._

_“Mom!” He run out to hug her._

_“Ah, Naruto! How was your day? Did you learn anything awesome? Dissect any frogs?” She stuck her tongue out and tickled his sides._

_“Nah, just like tests and boring stuff. Oh, I tried asking TenTen out, but she said she only dates guys who play sports, and that I’m a wimp.” He relayed dejectedly._

_“Seems about right,” an amused grumble came from the den. Naruto was glad he ended up not asking Kurama’s advice._

_“Oh, Kurama, quit joking around! My poor baby had his heart broken today!” Kushina pulled Naruto close and ruffled his hair. “Maybe I should find this TenTen girl and give her a piece of my mind. She would be lucky to have such a nice boy as you to dote on her every whim and massage her feet!”_

_Suddenly Naruto wasn’t too sure about this whole dating thing._

_“It’s okay. She’s too pretty for me anyway.”_

_“Nonsense,” Kushina tapped his nose with her pointer finger. “Maybe she already has her sights set on someone, or something, you know?”_

Or maybe it’s because I got hit in the head with a Frisbee and passed out. I guess I am a wimp. _“Yeah, probably.”_

_“Well, why don’t I make some pork and noodles for dinner? That’ll brighten you up in no time!”_

_When Kushina had told Naruto that the way to someone’s heart is through their stomach, he hadn’t really understood her until this moment._

_“Awesome! I’ll help!”_

_He followed her swaying red hair to the kitchen, getting a glimpse of Kurama taking another shot of whiskey. His hair was also red, but more orange, like fire, wiry and brittle. Kushina’s was dark as a tomato and smooth as the silk scarf she liked to wrap around her neck._

_They laughed and joked over the sizzling pork and boiling noodles. Naruto cut the vegetables and tried to watch as Kushina expertly marinated and seasoned and stirred, but it seemed that cooking was just not his art. Instant macaroni and peanut butter sandwiches were his limit._

_As Naruto placed the dishes on the small kitchen table, Kushina called, “Come and eat, honey!”_

_Naruto thought Kurama was nothing like honey. If anything he was horseradish, bitter at best and downright painful in large amounts._

_The man swaggered over to the table. Naruto could practically smell the alcohol on his breath, but if Kushina could, she didn’t say anything. She served everyone the food and sat down. “Now, who wants to do grace?”_

_Kurama predictably sneered. “I think Naruto does; what’re you grateful for, lad?”_

_Naruto flicked a crumb off the table. “I’m grateful for my awesome mom and her amazing cooking!” He felt Kurama’s narrowed eyes. “And I’m grateful for Kurama to help finance the meal.”_

_Kushina beamed proudly and Kurama nodded approvingly, so they dug in. It was the last time Naruto ate his mom’s cooking._

H - O - M - E

Naruto ended up taking his bundle with him to the library. He held it close to his side as he sidled in, trying to avoid angry questions from the strict librarians. He shuffled to the men’s bathroom. He went into one of the stalls and waited until there was no one there. He locked the bathroom door and climbed onto the back of one of the toilets. The ceiling was made of big square tiles sitting on a crisscrossing frame.

Naruto stood on his tip toes and pushed the tile above him up off the frame. He carefully nudged his bundle into the empty space, almost losing his balance once or twice, and let the tile fall back down. From the outside, there was no trace of anything hidden there. He hoped they wouldn’t decide to do electrical maintenance work in this area in the next few days, just in case they went into the ceiling and discovered his bundle.

He descended, thick yellow envelope in hand.

It took Naruto a while to find the dictionaries, since he never visited much. Some books were cool, like comics, but most were way too boring. He’d rather do something than read about it.

He picked the biggest, dustiest dictionary he could find at the end of the shelf. It looked like no one had even looked at it in several decades. He carefully opened it by the pages and slipped the envelope inside, trying not to leave any fingerprints on the thick layer of dust coating the covers. For a moment he was unsure that Kakashi would even be able to find it, but decided that the man was pretty damn smart and would figure it out somehow.

He glanced at the clock on the wall as he left the library.

Three o’clock.

He had an hour to kill. Should he visit old nostalgic haunts one last time and throw his money away on a large hot chocolate with extra whipped cream, considering he might be dead by the end of the day?

Nah, that was too depressing. “It’ll be fine,” he said aloud to no one in particular, mostly trying to convince himself.

He decided to go to the local soup kitchen. It was usually overflowing with elderly and their grandchildren; usually Naruto tried not to go, so that they would get more food, but he needed something in his stomach to calm his jitters. He tried not to think of it as his last supper.

He found the large, one story building near the east side of Konoha, across the river. It was made of chipped bricks and had dusty windows, but inside was bustling with crowds of people sitting at rickety lunch tables and on the floor around the edges of the main eating room, trying to avoid the early winter chill.

Naruto followed the slow line as it crept along, until he was face-to-face with Iruka Umino. Iruka was an elementary school teacher, and he spent much of his free time doing community service, such as working at the soup kitchen, or helping collect Salvation Army donations, or helping out with a local volunteer-run thrift shop. Iruka was the epitome of a Good Samaritan, and he was the reason Naruto had met Kakashi. The two men were friends through their volunteer work at a local animal shelter where they both helped take care of the dogs, and they had been having brunch in the park when Naruto recognized Iruka and stopped by to say hi. He thought Kakashi’s hair was cool looking, but as soon as he mentioned he worked at the police station, Naruto practically teleported away.

Iruka was always very busy and couldn’t help Naruto personally very often, but he had a kind heart and even though he never mentioned anything about Naruto’s past, the blond was sure that he knew about his crime.

“Naruto! I haven’t seen you lately. How are you?” Iruka asked pleasantly as he scooped some chili into a bowl.

Naruto shrugged. “Eh, same old, same old, ya know?” For some reason his voice shook.

Iruka looked concerned as he handed Naruto the bowl. “Everything alright? You seem… a little out of it.”

Suddenly words seemed very difficult to form. “Um, uh—” The words stuck in his throat like honey.

Thankfully Iruka took pity on him. “Hey Suzume, I’m going to take a break.”

The brunette in question nodded and said, “Perfect, Daikoku just finished his.”

Iruka grabbed himself a glass of water and led Naruto to an empty seat that seemed to magically appear. It seemed that the patrons of the kitchen always made room for Iruka to sit with them, to the point where they almost unconsciously scooted over to give him room at the end of the table.

Iruka stared at Naruto as he sipped his water, watching as the youth poked the chili unenthusiastically. He hadn’t eaten all day but for some reason his usually bothersome appetite was nowhere to be found.

“Well?”

“I… might have gotten into some trouble, Iruka.” Naruto shared dully.

“What kind of trouble? Like—” _Police trouble? Murder trouble?_

Naruto dropped his spoon in the bowl. “There are these guys, like really dangerous guys, and they want me to like work for them or something. And Kakashi, you know he works for the cops, he think I should like _do it_ , so I can be a double-agent or something, but if these guys find out they’ll kill me no big deal!”

Iruka frowned. “That seems awfully irrational of Kakashi. I mean, you’re just a kid, and you don’t even work for him.”

Naruto pulled at his bangs sticking out from under his dirty hat. “Yeah but, there’s some shit about to go down. Like real big shit about to hit a real big fan, and I feel like I could help stop it.”

“Who are these ‘guys’?” Iruka asked.

“Well, do you know about these things called Tailed Beasts?” Naruto asked in a hushed voice.

“Of course. There was a big deal about the Kikyo Gallery having them on special exhibit soon, but it was all over the news a couple days ago, and again this morning, that four of them had been stolen in violent robberies over the past week… Wait, are you saying that these guys are the ones who killed those security guards and stole the artifacts?” Naruto was glad Iruka was pretty quick.

He nodded numbly. The Fox seemed to grow heavier in his pocket, but he decided not to tell Iruka about it; Daybreak might come after Iruka if they thought he knew too much. “Basically.”

Iruka put his chin in his hands. “I… I don’t really know much about the situation, but I can tell you’re in a deep hole here. I can only offer this advice: I don’t think you should put yourself in harm’s way, Naruto, but in the end also your choice and you should do what you think is right.”

“That’s not very helpful.” Naruto pouted.

“Sorry,” Iruka apologized.

“S’okay.” Naruto stared the chili, then realized it was probably getting cold. He made up his mind and wolfed the food down. “Actually you were more help than you thought.” He stood up, feeling slightly queasy from eating so quickly but also rejuvenated. “Thanks, Iruka!” He snatched his bowl up and ran from the table, dropping the dishes off at the counter before sprinting out the door.

Iruka watched him go, surprised. “You’re welcome?”

H - O - M - E

Kakashi and Minato agreed that it would be less conspicuous if only one of them went to the library to pick up Naruto’s files. Since Minato was already there a few days ago, they decided he should go since any watchful eyes would assume that he was returning to do more research.

It was also known by all at the police station that Kakashi really only had a taste for adult romance novels, the kind one orders online instead of checking them out of the library. It would be surprising for him to suddenly be going there.

So Minato found himself reentering the ivy-covered building, although most of the leaves had turned brown and dropped off, leaving only the dead stems clinging weakly to the red bricks.

A kindly librarian pointed him towards the how-to poetry books, which he figured would be in the same general area as dictionaries. He doubted that the librarian was in on either of the gangs, but he knew from police experience that the more powerful organizations usually had members planted all over the city who would immediately send work back to their higher-ups if something seemed fishy. He wanted to avoid any unnecessary connection between him and Naruto.

He picked up a couple poetry books before nonchalantly meandering over to the dictionaries. When he found them, he almost dropped his books— both sides of a whole row, fives shelves tall on either side, packed with dictionaries of all languages. How on Earth was he supposed to know which one Naruto hid the envelope in?!

He carefully moved through the row, back and forth, back and forth, skimming each shelf. After a couple rounds, he tried looking in all the orange dictionaries, since Kakashi told him that was Naruto’s favorite color. No such luck.

He also tried all the ones that looked like they had been recently removed. Nope.

He tried the red ones, the yellow ones, the slang dictionaries, the dictionaries of jokes and puzzles, the encyclopedia of noodles, and the picture dictionaries. Maybe Naruto hadn’t left it here.

He checked his watch. It was 3:50 p.m.

Lunch lasted an hour and he had left the station a little after three o’clock, so he only had ten minutes before he had to leave to catch the bus back. Minato felt like yanking his hair out in frustration.

Maybe he was selling Naruto short. He had checked all the ones he thought a little kid would look at, all the silly books and the ones on the lower shelves, but it was possible that Naruto had thought about his choice more carefully.

Minato checked the top shelves for anything conspicuous. If he had to hide something important, which book would he put it in? It would be one that no one would look at. Probably not a foreign language dictionary, and probably not a ‘silly’ one. So a regular old English word dictionary, one that no one had used recently and that no one would use in the near future.

He started looking through the oldest, dustiest, most boring looking ones on the top shelf, where they were harder to reach (and therefore fewer people were willing to go through the effort of getting them down). The sixth one he opened had a thick yellow envelope tucked inside. Minato was impressed that there were barely any marks on the dusty cover; Naruto had been careful not to leave any clues about his hiding spot, lest someone unsavory came searching.

Minato tucked the envelope into his police jacket after a quick glance around. He then checked out the poetry books with a guest library card, being sure to make some small talk with the librarian about his favorite types of sonnets.

When he returned to the police station, he went to the mailbox and opened it, seemingly pulling the yellow envelope out and actually pulling a couple letters out. He looked at all the address lines as he entered the office room.

“Zetsu, you have two letters, one from a Tobi Himitsu and one from the City of Konoha. Oh, and did you get that message that your cousin who called yesterday? And Ebisu, you have a letter from… oh, from Mayor Sarutobi! Looks important.” Zetsu took the letters silently, his face as unexpressive as ever. Ebisu perked up at the mention of his name and the mayor’s in the same sentence.

While the other two were distracted by their correspondences, Minato slid the yellow envelope onto Kakashi’s desk. “You got this envelope, too.” Kakashi nodded gratefully and somehow managed to bury it underneath the messy flood of papers strewn across his desk before Minato had finished speaking.

“What, no mail for you, Mr. Namikaze?” Kakashi asked politely.

Minato shrugged. “I’ve only been here a couple days; it’ll probably get forwarded from my office in Harbour City soon.”

Zetsu neatly slid one of the envelopes into a drawer, opening the other. “Detective Namikaze, it appears this envelope was incorrectly addressed to me. The letter inside it addressed to you.”

“Huh? Who’s it from?” Minato strode over to the desk in the corner and took the letter from Zetsu.

“Mayor Sarutobi.”

Minato wondered why the return addresses on his and Eibsu’s envelopes were different when they were both from the mayor. Maybe Ebisu’s was more personal for some reason. “Alright, thank you.” He read the letter as he walked back to his table in the lounge. Mayor Sarutobi wanted to have an audience with him tomorrow at 8 o’clock sharp, at the office in town hall. Minato informed Asuma, who told him in so many words that he could do whatever he wanted.

Tenzo met him in the lounge with lab results from the crime scenes, and Minato let him know that he would be on his own tomorrow morning. The other detective didn’t seem bothered. “As long as you come back,” was all he said.

Minato wondered if he should be nervous about meeting the mayor. He didn’t know what the meeting was about, but it was a good time to see how much the older Sarutobi know about the building tension between the police force and the citizens of Konoha.

The lab results revealed that the grenades used at all crime scenes were not any kind of standard issue weaponry, meaning they were probably homemade. The machine guns, however, were found to be from an M2A1, a newer military-grade machine gun.

“Holy shit, where did they get this stuff?” Tenzo was astounded by the fire-power that these criminals had. The police department had plenty of riot supplies and small weapons, but nothing close to the pure destructive force of military weaponry.

Minato continued reading the reports. “Black Market, probably.”

“So not only do these guys have spies in our or our neighboring police, they also have reliable ties to the Black Market? Great.” Tenzo ruffled his short brown hair and sighed.

They tossed ideas back and forth about what the source of the weaponry could have been, but eventually decided that that was a bit too far for their reach. They just needed to find the guys in Konoha, not unravel the undoubtedly enormous web of illegal traders. From then on they had to assume that the criminals had access to an extensive array of weaponry, which emphasized their need for undercover work. Going out in the open, guns blazing, would be a surefire was to get blown up.

Tenzo lamented that they didn’t have their own mole inside the criminal group. Minato carefully agreed, checking his watch. Naruto have already met Itachi at the Middle Bridge by now. He wondered what Naruto’s choice was.

H - O - M - E

Naruto trotted towards the bridge. He wasn’t looking forward to the meeting, but he sure as hell didn’t want to show up late. He started crossing the river, the wind getting stronger over the water. It was cold and bit into his exposed cheeks. He peeked over the railing along the walkway. The water rushed by thirty yards below, and cars sped past him as he ran. As he neared the middle of the bridge, he saw a dark figure standing with his back to the railing. He slowed so that when he reached the man he would have his breath back.

“You came. Wise decision.” Itachi said, looking slightly less terrifying in jeans and a dark blue sweater, with a black scarf wrapped around his neck. It had little pompoms hanging off the ends.

“Uh, yeah.” Naruto tried his best to stand up straight and look confident. “I’ve decided to take you guys up on your offer.”

Itachi wasn’t impressed. “Do you have it?”

“Have… Oh, the Fox! Yeah, it’s here.” Naruto patted his pocket, feeling the hard lump underneath.

Itachi narrowed his eyes. “First rule, don’t speak so openly.”

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. “Oops.”

“What about your files?”

“I’m leaving those in a secure place, you know, so you don’t off me like right away or anything.”

Itachi nodded approvingly. “Fine. Then let’s go.”

He led the way across the bridge, away from the Mill, away from the police station. As Naruto followed, he hoped he made the right choice.

They walked all over the east side of Konoha, taking random turns, crossing streets and then crossing back, even walking around the same block three times, all the while going at a leisurely pace. Naruto wanted to tear his hair out. Were they even going anywhere or was Itachi just fucking with him for the giggles?

Sensing the teen’s simmering frustration, Itachi said, “The best way to lose a tail is to not look like you’re trying to lose them.”  
“That might work for you, with your boring-ass plainsclothes, but I’m sort of obvious to find,” he said brashly, gesturing to his telltale patched coat and orange pants. For a moment he thought Itachi would punch him for such insolence, but he didn’t.

“Don’t worry about such things from now on. As part of our group, we will provide you the necessary clothing and items to go on unnoticed.”

“That’s pretty nice of you guys.”

“We take care of our own.”

Naruto put his hands in his pockets. The cold was seeping through the holes in his gloves and making his fingers numb. Would they give him new gloves, too? Probably. ‘Taking care of your own’ meant making sure they didn’t get frostbite. That would make it too hard to shoot people.

He suddenly felt ill. He spent so much time worrying about having his true intentions revealed and getting horribly murdered that he hadn’t even thought about what Daybreak actually wanted from him. They knew that he was very fast and very hard to catch, and that he was a street rat with no familial or legal connections to anyone. That would make him the perfect person for low-key assassinations, wouldn’t it? What if they gave him a gun and told him to shoot people? Just thinking about holding a gun made his stomach drop. He promised himself that he would never kill anyone ever again.

It was too late to back out now, because Itachi was leading him into a quaint suburban house. When did they even get here? Naruto berated himself for losing himself in his thoughts. He looked around and memorized the nearest street signs.

“So who was following us before that we had to lose?” Naruto asked.

“No one.”

Naruto rolled his eyes, following Itachi into the brown house.

The entrance opened with a front foyer. There a couple pairs of shoes on a shoe mat off to the side. Itachi left his shoes on, so Naruto did, too. To the left was a staircase leading to the second floor and an open door into what looked like a living room. A set of closed double doors was on the right, and ahead was a hallway that led to a kitchen.

Naruto followed Itachi to the kitchen, where Kisame was eating what looked like homemade crab rangoon.

“The brat showed up, eh?” the bigger man chuckled. Naruto huffed and turned up his nose at Kisame. He was no brat! “Watch it, little fox, I’ve eviscerated people for less.”

“Save it, Kisame,” Itachi drawled. “Where’s Nagato?”

“Down in the map room.”

Itachi led Naruto to the basement door and started descending the stairs. Naruto shot a glance back at Kisame, who grinned wickedly through his crab rangoon. Naruto gulped and followed Itachi.

They reached the bottom, shelves along the wall lined with random items, ranging from flashlights to jars of peanut butter. Naruto saw that there were way too many doors branching off than was normal for the basement of such a small house. Itachi went through a door on the right. Instead of leading to a room, it opened up into a concrete tunnel with simple light fixtures hanging from the ceiling. Naruto thought it looked like those bomb shelters from old war movies.

As they walked the long tunnel, Naruto noticed that they passed other doors every so often. A whole underground tunnel network, all operated from one little house! He wondered if they built it all themselves or if they found it. A young man with short red hair came out of one of the doors, and gave Naruto a scrutinizing look before nodding to Itachi. He nodded back as they passed.

After being silent for a while, Itachi said, “Our leaders here are Nagato and Konan. They’ll tell you what’s expected of you, and they will accept the Fox as a token of good intentions.” Naruto nodded in understanding.

They stopped at one of the doors which was slightly open. Naruto noticed that the tunnel seemed to continue on much further. Inside the room was a large table with a very detailed drawing of Konoha city. Little figures were placed here and there in different colors, little cubes and flags and cones. _A war room_ , Naruto thought.

Two people were hunched over the table, arguing over the placement of a little green flag. They looked up when Itachi and Naruto entered.

The man was medium height with red hair and a gaunt face, like he hadn’t eaten properly in a while, but he didn’t look very old. The taller woman seemed about the same age, with dark hair that had a blue sheen and a flower pinned in it. They were dressed in regular civilian clothes.

“You must be Naruto Uzumaki,” the man said. “I’m Nagato, and this is Konan.”

Nerves taking over, Naruto made a stiff salute and replied quickly, “Nice to meet you, nice house you got.”

“You don’t have to worry about us.” Konan straightened up. “We don’t use much violence like the others.”

Naruto’s shoulders relaxed. “Oh. Uh, cool. Oh! I think this is for you then.” He pulled the Fox out of his coat, still wrapped in the paper. Konan strode over and he gave it to her. She unwrapped it and showed it to Nagato.

“Beautiful!” They fawned over it for a moment before wrapping it back up, planning on checking its authenticity later.

“What about those files?” Konan asked.

Itachi answered for him. “He has those hidden for the time being, for insurance. I thought it seemed like a wise move for now. It’ll give the others a reason not to maim him until he’s proven himself.”  
Naruto paled at that, and was suddenly very glad that he had the foresight to not bring the files with him.

“Well, Mr. Uzumaki,” Nagato took over, “Konan will show you to where you’ll be staying for the foreseeable future. Since you’re new, and given your inclinations, we’ve arranged for you to have your own room up in the main house instead of down here. There’s a kitchen down here, but most use the one upstairs as a meeting place. Itachi, if you could give me your advice on this.” Before Naruto could hear what they were talking about, Konan was leading him out of the room and back the way they came. He quickly found out that she wasn’t very talkative either.

“So, uh, what exactly am I to be doing here, anyway?” he asked, trying to end the silence.

“You’ll have assignments to complete, usually two or three at a time, with set amounts of time to do each. Depending on what you’re doing that could be two days or two months. You’re young yet, so you’ll probably be running errands and gathering intel for a bit.” Naruto much have shown his relief through his body language, because Konan added, “Don’t worry about having to participate in the gun violence yet. You’re too young and inexperienced.”

So they did expect him to join the attacks eventually. They probably wanted to train him on gun use first. He was not looking forward to that at all. Maybe he’d have the information he needed and he could skip before it came to that. Having never done any kind of infiltration before, he had no idea how long he expected to be here. A week? A month? A year? He supposed he would just have to wait and find out.

They ascended the same stairs back into the kitchen. Kisame was gone now, but the red haired man was standing over the stove, stirring what smelled like beef stroganoff.

 _Damn, that smells good!_ He briefly wondered where they got the money to maintain this fortress and everything inside, but realized they probably stole the money. It was also possible that some of them had ‘real’ jobs, judging from the man who just walked in through the front door with a briefcase and a fancy tie.

“How was work, Kakuzu?” the red haired man asked when he dropped his briefcase next to the kitchen table.

“Terrible,” Kakuzu replied. “People are so stupid when it comes to money. I try to tell them that if they wait a week to file their tax claim, they can save an extra hundred dollars, but they just want to get their cash right away so they can blow it all at the casino. Pathetic and impatient.”

“Not everyone has your frugality.”

“You got that right.” The two men noticed Konan and Naruto. “Hey Konan, is that the fox kid?” Kakuzu asked.

“My name’s Naruto, not fox kid, and definitely not brat.” Naruto said crossly.

“I like his fire.”

“It’ll get him in trouble someday. Don’t let him near Kisame.” The red head said.

“Too late,” Naruto admitted, “he already threatened to evis-evict—uh, gut me.”

Kakuzu chuckled. “Hear that Sasori? One day in and he’s already a dead man walking.”

Sasori continued stirring his stroganoff. “Itachi wouldn’t let that happen. Kisame’s a loose cannon but even he’s afraid of what Itachi will do to him.”

Naruto realized that he had gotten too complacent. Itachi had become so down to Earth and reasonable in the last couple hours that he had nearly forgotten that the man had murdered his entire family in cold blood and could probably snap his neck before he could blink. Letting down his guard like that would lead to his treachery being discovered. He needed to be more careful.

“I’m showing him to where he’ll be staying for now. I expect he will not be disturbed in his private spaces?” Konan said with an underlying threat. The two men nodded. “Good. This way, Naruto.”

She led him up to the second floor. A hallway branched into five doors. “This is the bathroom. That room is Nagato’s, this one is mine, and that—that’s your room.” She opened the door for him.

It had clearly belonged to someone else. There was a bookshelf filled with philosophy, architecture, and language books. A large bowl atop of the shelf held two little goldfish swimming back and forth. The bed was made and the closet was open, showing a couple sets of clothes hanging from the hangers.

“Is this--?”

“It’s yours now. Some—someone else used to stay here, but he’s gone now. We moved all his personal things downstairs. The closet has some more… inconspicuous clothes for you. We left his books in case you wanted something to read. I can see that you didn’t bring much.”

He hadn’t brought anything.

“Whenever you’re hungry you can eat anything from the kitchen. Make sure you check for labels on the boxes and containers though; some of the guys around here will kill you if you eat their poptarts. Also, try not to make your showers too long. Hot water is expensive.” She left.

Naruto stared around the room. His room. He hadn’t had his own bedroom since… well, for a while. He realized how dirty and smelly his clothes were in the clean room. He hung up his coat in the closet and grabbed a new set of clothes and went to the bathroom.

It was large, with a bathtub-shower combo, toilet, sink, and many cupboards and drawers. Several cups sat on the counter with toothbrushes in them. They were all different colors, but none of them were labeled.

He locked the door and dropped his clothes on the floor. It took him a minute to figure out how to turn on the shower, but it was incredible. He spent so long washing up in gas station bathrooms and doing cloth-baths that he had forgotten the massaging heat of a good shower. He felt weeks, months, of dirt and worry washing down the drain. He probably used half the bar of soap, but he noticed a large supply in the cupboard and wasn’t worried about it. He massaged some shampoo into his scalp, watching the water in front of his eyes turn brown from the dirt, then eventually clear. He hadn’t seen his clean hair in a while. He wondered what color is actually was now.

He heard Konan’s voice in his mind telling him not to take too long, so he reluctantly turned the water off. He dried himself with a towel from the cupboard and put on the new clothes. It was a black turtleneck similar to his old one (but it wasn’t three sizes too big), and a pair of khakis. When he dried his hair off and wiped the steam from the mirror, he was shocked at his reflection. He looked completely different!

His hair was golden and his skin was clean, if not still slightly red from the heat of the water. Best of all, he smelled like fruit. He guessed the shampoo was Konan’s, but it smelled so good he didn’t care.

Weirdly, the more he stared at his reflection, the more he was reminded of the police officer who was with Kakashi. What was his name? Mintoto something… Naruto couldn’t remember. It hadn’t seemed important at the time. But now that he was clean of dirt and grim and his true coloring showed, the resemblance was slightly unsettling. Maybe they were related somehow?

Naruto picked up his old clothes from the floor and brought them back to his room (his room! His very own room!). He left the clothes in the corner and sat on the bed with his newsboy cap in hand. He ran his fingers over the initial written on the tag, M.N.

His stomach suddenly gurgled. The smell of the beef stroganoff had wafted up the stairs. Sasori’s pot had been pretty big. He decided to see if there was any extra. He dropped the hat on the bed and wandered downstairs. The hat was too close to the edge and slowly slipped off, rolling over to the pile of dirty clothes before coming to a stop on the pair of orange pants.

 


	8. To the Streets

Chapter 7: To The Streets

 

Despite the theories, worries, and plans written on inside of his eyelids, Minato managed to sleep through the night. He woke three minutes before his alarm was set to go off. After lying in bed for a minute staring at the ceiling, he got up and turned off the alarm before it had a chance to start screeching.

In the midst of all the chaos of the past week, he’d somehow found time to finish unpacking the belongings he’d brought with him and buy groceries to last for a while. He stood under a lukewarm shower for six minutes, washing the grogginess out of his eyes.

A breakfast of eggs on toast and slightly burnt coffee brought him to 7:13 a.m. He was all set to go, already in his uniform. Being a little early never hurt anyone, especially in a meeting with an important person. His meeting with Mayor Sarutobi was scheduled for 8 o’clock. Minato peeked out the window and saw that there was a dusting of snow on the ground and decided to grab a scarf and gloves, both black to match his navy blue police uniform and cap.

He walked to the bus stop, breath clouding around his face like smoke. He bought a newspaper from a box near the bus stop, which he had to pry open with slightly numb fingers, and read it while he rode the bus. The front page story was, unsurprisingly, about the recent murders and thefts relating to the famous crystal Tailed Beasts. There were a few interviews with Chief Sarutobi and Zetsu. Minato himself had gotten an email yesterday morning asking after an interview, but he’d declined; he noticed that the article mentioned his arrival, stating that he ‘declined to comment’ on the state of the investigation. A small side article gave a short biography of Minato’s time as an officer in Harbor City, much to his chagrin. So much for undercover. It even went as far as to list Jiraiya as his father; listing family members during such an investigation was unacceptable. Minato had no doubt that Jiraiya could take care of himself just fine, but it was a disturbing lack of ethics nonetheless.

He folded the paper with a huff, making a note to give his adoptive father a call later. He’d also be giving a very stern talking-to to whomever had written this. Another look at the article revealed one Sai C. to be the journalist in question, with an email address under the name. Minato would bring his complaint to Asuma later, but he doubted much would be done, so he already started composing a heated email in his head.

The bus stopped a block away from the City Hall. It was a tall building with red walls and orange singles, rounded and windowed on the upper floor to allow full view of the city around it without leaving the bottom open to easy entrance.

Minato entered and checked in with the front desk. The secretary directed him towards a silver elevator, which took him to the top floor. There were a few chairs lined up against the wall on one side of the Mayor’s office door, so Minato took a seat and waited to be called. His watch said 7:49, so he flicked open the newspaper again to pass the time and sternly told the butterflies in his stomach that he met important people all the time and had yet to embarrass himself too much.

Although the article on the Tailed Beasts had mentioned the deaths of the security guards driving the armored trucks, only two of them had a piece in the obituaries section.

_It’s to be expected; it’s barely been a week. The rest will probably appear in the coming days._

Minato noted the times and places of the funerals.

Moving on to the next page, his eyes flicked over the horoscopes. Minato didn’t believe in cosmic signs or divine intervention or rose petals swirling through the air to spell out the name of the long lost son he never had. It was all astrological nonsense if you asked him.

_Aquarius: A new person will enter your life and perhaps come to be the most important, but beware of causing them harm. Being aloof won’t fix your mistakes or revitalize your relationships, so put your stubbornness to good use and pursue the person you wronged in order to seek their forgiveness and prove you can be better._

“Who comes up with this stuff anyway?” Minato muttered to himself once he finished reading it, turning to an actual story.

The centerspread explained that crime in Konoha was at an all-time low due to the brave and noble acts of the police in enforcing laws and taking down criminals. Minato noted that there were no actual statistics listed, though there were a few quotes from Asuma about how increased taxes have allowed him to procure the ‘latest innovational technologies’ for his squads and that the full cooperation of the people of Konoha is necessary to ensure the police can do their work, no questions asked. The author of the article was Sai C. again.

 _This guy writes a center piece on the low crime rates AND the front page story about recent bombings. Who’s he trying to kid?_ Minato would definitely be contacting this writer.

The sound of the door opening drew his attention.

“The Mayor will see you now.”

At the words of the secretary standing at the door, Minato folded his paper away and rose to enter the room. The office was large and circular, with the major’s desk at the far side so he could observe everyone entering the room. Minato glanced around the room, seeing portraits of past mayors and other important people behind glass frames, as well as certificates, diplomas, and licenses. A fringe flower bonsai sat in a pot in the corner, its dark purple leaves giving a hint of muted color to the otherwise gray and brown room.

There was a man in a suit and dark sunglasses standing a few feet from the door with his hands folded behind his back, not doing anything in particular, just observing. By the mayor’s desk, a woman in a pencil skirt and jacket was showing the contents of a large folder to another suited man, while the major himself sat at his desk with a paper in hand.

All these details flashed through Minato’s mind in the second it took to glance around, and he continued forward, the secretary closing the door behind him. He felt suddenly very trapped, even though the large windows provided an outside view.

“Ah, you must be Officer Namikaze,” the major spoke, putting down the paper and folding his hands on the desk. The two people beside him straightened up.

Minato nodded respectfully. “Mayor Sarutobi. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure is all mine, my dear boy.”

The mayor smiled at Minato over his hands, fingers entwined. Minato waited for him to continue, but the mayor seemed content to stare at Minato silently. After twenty seconds, which seemed to stretch into hours, Minato cleared his throat and said, “Ah, I got your letter, obviously, since I’m here. The envelope seemed to have been addressed to Zetsu but he passed the letter to me. Was there anything in particular that concerned you, Mayor Sarutobi, or did you just wish to meet me?” The mayor didn’t as much as blink during his words.

“Well, I saw from your records that you used to be a resident here in Konoha for a while, and wished to welcome you back personally, even if it’s just for a short time.” Minato tried not to fidget under the elder Sarutobi’s sharp scrutiny. “It’s a shame that we missed out on having such a fine police officer for our own force.”

“Well, your son seems to be a good leader and detective.”

“Hm, perhaps.” He stared at Minato for a bit. The young officer was wondering if he should try to come up with something else to say when Sarutobi explained, “I also wanted to meet you for more personal reasons. You see, I was good friends with Jiraiya. Well, still am, I suppose. I haven’t seen him in years, but we were on good terms when we parted ways.”

“Ah, yes.” Minato wasn’t sure how, or if, to say that Jiraiya had never once mentioned Sarutobi. “He drove me here himself. Did he visit?”

“No, unfortunately.”

“I see. I’m sure you know he is the chief of the Harbor City Police Department, always busy and very dedicated; he probably wanted to hurry home.”

“Of course. Well, I’ve read up on you Minato, and if you’re anything like you are in the stories, I’m sure Konoha will greatly benefit from your presence.”

Minato dipped his head. “Thank you, Mayor.”

Sarutobi stood up, the two secretaries next to him stepping aside to allow him to move around the desk. He extended his hand to shake Minato’s, his long coat sleeve practically engulfing both their hands. “I wish you luck on your case, detective, and I am certainly glad we got to meet, if only briefly. If you require anything at all, please don’t hesitant to contact me.”

“Of course. Thank you.”

Minato ducked out of the room, suddenly glad to be out of the mayor’s presence. Something about him was intimidating, like standing in a dark room with a bright light shining in your face. _At least it was quick._ Minato was used to bureaucrats wanting to meet him for the sake of it. Not that he was particularly famous, but he had solved some well-known cases and was generally seen as a prime officer to have on a difficult case in Harbor City. And according to Jiraiya and several other officers, he had good skin and was “easy on the eyes”.

 _If everyone moisturized, they could have great skin, too_.

Minato was able to meet Tenzo at the police station by 9 o’clock, nodding his hello to Kakashi as he passed the man’s desk.

Tenzo sat in the lounge, wearing well-worn street clothes. When Minato entered he quirked an eyebrow. “Are we still going under today?”

Minato palmed his forehead. “Shoot, I forgot to go home and change. I had a meeting with the Mayor this morning and I thought I should wear my uniform. All official, you know.”

“Of course. Well, we can stop by your place and you can change then.”  
As they walked, Minato cursed himself for such blatant forgetfulness. He and Tenzo had agreed that today they would go undercover in civilian clothes to take to the streets and see if they could find anything out about Daybreak.

Tenzo followed Minato into the apartment building and up the stairs. “I would have thought that you’d get a… a more modern apartment,” he remarked, wiping dust and grime on his pants from touching the handrail.

Minato let him into his apartment. “It’s not so bad. I don’t need anything fancy, and I don’t really know anyone around here to invite over for tea and biscuits.” Tenzo sat in the living room while he left to change in civvies.

He emerged in jeans and a red sweater, pulling a puffy green coat on.

“Do you ever let your hair run free?” Tenzo joked as Minato replaced his regular police cap with a red and white winter hat.

“Nah, it just gets all over the place. Can’t really tame it, it always looks like I just rolled out of bed.”

“You try gel or something?”  
“Yeah, just makes it stiff and spiky.”

They walked onto the street to find that it had started snowing lightly. “Blast this weather,” Tenzo complained. “The wind really makes it worse.”

“Harbor City is quite tepid in the winter months, but I remember how bad Konoha winters can be,” Minato agreed, putting his hands in his coat pockets to warm them.

Tenzo cocked his head. “Oh, you lived here? When?”

Blinking snowflakes off his eyelashes, Minato replied, “I actually went to the Konoha Institute for Arts after high school. I wanted to be a painter. I lived here for a couple years after that, but it was hard to get by so I moved back to Harbor City and joined the police academy there.” That was the abridged, impassive version.

Tenzo hummed in thoughtful acknowledgement.

They walked along for a bit with Tenzo leading them. “So where are we heading first?” Minato asked.

“There’s a dealer I know, name of Yugito Nii. She sells all sorts of plants, mostly illegal but not exactly meth-lab level of concern. Very sneaky about it, too. She’s usually quite hard to find. Her specialty is some sort of specially grown marijuana that she’s dubbed Catnip. It’s supposedly very tasty and less smelly than most weed, and potent. Popular among young adults, artsy types, you know. Uh, no offense or anything,” he added, remembering Minato’s recent art school revelation.

He just chuckled. “None taken. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get involved with those kinds of minor drugs when I was younger. How do you think she can help us?”

“I’ve had a few run-ins with her. She’s close to a guy called B, like the letter, not the bug. I don’t know what his real name is. Not sure if even she knows it. I’ve only seen B once, but I believe he’s very involved in underground trades and sales. He could know if weapons are being sold from the black market into the city. So if we find Yugito, we find B, hopefully.”

Minato nodded. They continued walking, crossing the river into the east side of town. With the snowfall there were fewer people out on the streets, but when they passed alleys Minato could see figured huddled besides boxes and garbage bins.

It wasn’t uncommon for officers to have less than reputable contacts within large cities such as Konoha, and Minato himself know some dealers and traders who were involved in minor criminal activity back in Harbor City. Sometimes letting the little guys run around and get information is worth it to catch the big fish. Minato knew from experience that once the minor criminals started getting put away, the ones at the top of the chain tightened up and faded into the background; it was better to get the worst first and work your way down.

They came to a small park with a few swings and a small pond in the middle of a snowy field. A woman was sitting on a bench tossing bread at the rippling water, talking to a short man standing to her right, his coat collar turned up and wide brimmed hat turned down. The two incognito officers approached from behind and pair stopped talking. The woman turned to scan Tenzo and Minato with a sharp eye.

“A couple’a ninjas. See you later,” she addressed the man. He nodded and shuffled away, never letting the policemen see his face. The woman turned back to the pond and kept throwing bread at it. There were no ducks and the water was frozen over at the edges.

Tenzo and Minato came to stand on her left.

“Yugito, nice seeing you here.” Tenzo started.

“Tenzo.” She was fixated on her task.

“So, ninjas, was it? Is that the new term for cops gone under?” He tried again.

“Yep. Don’t know who came up with it, but I think it’s cute. You here for ‘nip or what? And who’s the pretty boy?”

Minato grimaced.

Tenzo shook his head. “No. He’s helping me on a case. Very important, you see. Someone’s been getting a hold of illegal weapons, so we’re looking for B to see if he has any info.”

Yugito crumpled up the paper bag in her gloved hands, then shook some snow out of her pale braid. She finally looked up at them from her seat. Minato noted the extreme precision of her winged eyeliner and thought that it was probably long and sharp enough to stab a man. “That asshole? Last I heard he was dealing southside, trying to sell some fancy-ass knife set he got from who knows where. You gonna bust him?”

“No, not unless he’s been selling grenade launchers to street gangs.”

Yugito smirked. “Nah, he’s not into guns and stuff like that. In that case, he usually gets lunch at the Queen Bee Diner on 26th street, Monday through Friday. It’s his favorite because of the dumb pun with his name, what an asshole, that B. He has a stupid code thing you should say, so he knows he’s good around you guys. When you see him, just--”

A sudden bang sounded and half a second later Yugito was cut off as a trail of blood exited the wound on the side of her head. Tenzo and Minato threw themselves on the ground as Yugito slumped down on the bench, the shot echoing around them.   
“What the hell was that?!” Minato yelled at Tenzo. “I thought she was just a minnow!”

“She is—was,” Tenzo said, looking around for the shooter.

“Then why the hell was she just assassinated? We’re in the middle of an empty park, and a shot like that had to have come from a sniper! There are no trees or buildings nearby to hide in. People don’t snipe pot dealers.” Minato replied testily with his hands over his head.

“I don’t know. Just let me call it in.” Tenzo radioed back to the police station and explained the situation.

After lying on the ground for a few more minutes listening to the silence, they decided it was safe to stand. If someone really wanted them dead, the shooter would have got them by now anyway. Yugito lay sideways on the bench, blood dripping onto the soft snow below.

“What a pain in the ass. At least we know where to find B,” Tenzo remarked as they waited for backup to arrive.

“But she never told us the keyword. She said B had a special phrase that he needs to hear. What are we supposed to do?”

The blare of police sirens signaled the impending arrival of their requested squad and ambulance. “Well figure something out. Like I said, I’ve met B once, so maybe he’ll recognize me.”

Minato turned in a circle and surveyed all the building he could see with narrowed eyes. The park was small, about half a mile in diameter, and all the nearby buildings were less than three stories. He didn’t notice anything particularly suspicious about them. From where Yugito had been sitting and according to the shot to the left side of her head, the sniper would have had to shoot right between Tenzo and Minato to get to her. It made Minato feel slightly better than the shooter hadn’t been aiming for him and had waited until he shifted instead of shooting through him, but he was still disturbed by the murder. Had Yugito been further entwined in the underground than Tenzo thought, or was it a personal hit? Either way, it was a shame.

The police cruiser and ambulance pulled up, two paramedics hopping out with a stretcher. As they evaluated the body and took it away, Minato asked, “Should we investigate the shooter?”

Tenzo shrugged. “He’s probably long gone by now. We might as well get our statements over with and then find B.”

The two officers who arrived, partners Aoba Yamashiro and Raido Namaishi, came with notepads ready.

H – O – M – E

It was snowing outside but Naruto didn’t hate it. Usually snow brought cold brought sickness, but once he was bundled up in a fleece hat and warm coat, it wasn’t too bad. True to their word, Daybreak had procured proper clothing for him, stuff that fit and wasn’t full of holes and rat droppings.

Currently Naruto was standing two blocks from Daybreak’s above-ground house, at a bus stop. Several different buses had gone by, but he didn’t get on any of them. He was waiting. After sleeping in almost until noon his first day, he had woken to find a note that someone, probably Konan, had slid under his door. It instructed him to get dressed in the warm clothes on the kitchen table and meet at bus stop 36 down the street. Who he was supposed to meet, it didn’t say. There was no time or day either, so Naruto figured it wasn’t a pressing matter, though he didn’t want to dilly dally.

A brunch of a combination of four different cereals (all safely labeled “for sharing” in sharpie) in the seemingly empty house took less than ten minutes. It took him five more minutes to throw it up into the toilet. _Note to self: don’t eat so much at once_. Tasted great though. The cereal, not the barf.

He dressed in dark jeans and a red shirt, taking the burnt orange coat and black hat, scarf, and gloves that were laid out. The coat was slightly too big, but it was warmer than anything he could remember having. He went to put on his old boots that sat by the front door, but next to them he found a new pair sitting next to them with a note saying _Naruto_ taped to them.

“What, did they measure my feet when I was sleeping?” He slid the new boots on, realizing they probably just got ones that were the same size as his old ones.

Now wearing a completely new wardrobe, Naruto took a moment to look in the mirror in the front foyer. He looked… different. Not bad, probably better than ever, but something seemed weird to him. A slightly twinge of guilt settled through him. Why should he be getting all these new clothes, his own bedroom, all of this, when he hadn’t really done anything to deserve them? There were plenty of people in similar situations as he, kids younger than him and elderly people, people who really _needed_ a new warm coat and a bowl of steaming stroganoff. He was hearty, relatively healthy, could get by on less than a meal a day. His stomach squirmed but he tried to reason with himself.

 _If you can just get people to change the city, we can start helping those who need it_. With a reformation of the police department, crime could actually be brought down and money could be funneled towards social programs. He tugged at the bright blond hair poking out from underneath the hat.

But first he needed to stop the city from being destroyed by a shootout between Daybreak and the police. And to do that, he needed information.

So here he was, standing at the bus stop, trying to look around for whoever he was meeting without being too conspicuous about it. It was getting harder as more buses kept going by. Eventually they started repeating. There was a watch-maker’s shop behind him, and a couple times he had glanced in the window to see the owner sitting at the counter, eyeing him. If he didn’t leave soon, the man might get suspicious, even call the cops for loitering or something.

He was thinking about going back to the house when a hand came down on his shoulder. “You’re new to this, hm?”

“Uh…” Naruto said intelligently. Was this the mean his was meeting? Naruto’s eyes flickered to a black and red strip of cloth tied around the man’s palm, which rested on Naruto’s shoulder. “Yup, the newbie, that’s me.”

The man steered Naruto down the street. “Lucky me. I’m Deidara, your babysitter for the day. I heard from Kisame that you like to be called ‘lil Fox’, hm?” He smirked.

“Uh, no. Just Naruto.”

“Whatever. I have a very important task to complete today and you’re supposed to accompany me. Just watch carefully and don’t get in my way, yeah?”

“Sure. Deidara, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

They walked along at a casual pace, allowing Naruto to take in Deidara’s appearance. He had blond hair, almost the same shade as Naruto’s (now that it was clean enough to recognize the color), tied into a high ponytail. His bangs fell onto the left side of his face, causing him to move them aside with a head-flick every so often. He had white pants and a dark coat, and wasn’t very eye-catching besides his hair, which Naruto assumed was the point. He was also rather young.

“So, like… what are we doing?” Naruto asked.

“ _I’m_ going to get rid of someone causing us a lot of trouble, and _you’re_ going to stand at a moderate distance and tell me if a bird’s about to shit on my head.”

“Oh.”

Naruto followed Deidara into a deserted alley and up a fire escape, noting that he carried a large black backpack. They clambered all the way to the roof of the building, sliding around on the snow-slickened metal staircases. At the top, Deidara immediately walked to the far corner of the roof and crouched to start unloading his backpack. Naruto looked out over the city. It sucked that snow was blowing in his face, but the city actually looked quite pretty with a light layer of white covering the normally grimy buildings and trash in the streets.

He looked down to see what Deidara was putting together. “Is that a gun?”

“And here I thought I was getting the stupid assistant. _This_ is a point three-three-eight Lapua Magnum sniper rifle, better than any old _gun_.” Deidara lay on his stomach, not caring about the snow, and looked through the scope.

“Are you going to shoot someone?”  
Deidara threw him a withering look. “No, I’m just going to splatter their house with paintballs and glitter bombs.”

“Oh.” Naruto watched him adjust the stand the fancy rifle was on and fiddle with the parts. “Who are you going to shoot?”

“A thorn in our side. Don’t worry about it and just watch for helicopters or something, yeah?”

Naruto briefly scanned the sky. It was gray and empty.

“You’re good. It’s not someone I, like, know is it? Or is it the mayor? You’re not gonna shoot the mayor, are you?”

“Fucking snow, getting all up in my way. No, I’m not gonna shoot the mayor or your pet pigeon or your goddamn mother, now shut up, will you?.”

Naruto frowned at the misplaced jab to his mother and muttered, “No, someone else did that.”

Deidara was silent, concentrating on his scope. He looked through it, calm and waiting, at least for the first few minutes. “Come on, dumbasses, get outta the way. I’ll shoot you if I have to, but it’ll be a waste of ammo,” he grumbled. Time seemed to pass slowly, but after only a few seconds, Deidara fired. Naruto wasn’t expecting it and nearly fell over. He peered towards where the rifle was aimed, but couldn’t see anyone within a couple blocks that was bleeding out on the street, so the target must have been quite far away. Deidara watched through the scope for a few more minutes to make sure the target went down before packing up.

“Hm, sorry if the ‘your mom’ thing offended you. Konan didn’t tell us much about you but she did say not to aggravate you.”

Naruto wasn’t expecting the apology and mumbled “It’s okay, it was a long time ago.” He kept staring off the rooftop as Deidara slung the heavy backpack over his shoulder. “You won’t be able to see ‘em from here, not without binoculars or something.”

Naruto nodded in troubled acknowledgement and turned away. They left the roof as quickly as the slippery staircase allowed them.

They padded along the street, the snow muffling their steps. “So, now that they’re… gone, can you at least tell me who that was?” Naruto asked hesitantly.

Deidara didn’t reply for a moment. “A lady named Yugito Nii. Nagato and Konan didn’t say exactly why, but I dug around and I think she sold out their friend. Ever heard of Root?”

Naruto nodded. “I know they’re a gang that clashes with another gang called Anbu a lot, and they all have weird bars tattooed on their wrists. And they’re super nasty.” He remembered trying to pickpocket a Root member once, in his early days on the streets; Tsunade had to pick pieces of glass out of his neck for an hour.

“Hm, pretty much. They’re run by some mysterious dude named The Eye. Creepy, yeah? Like The Eye is always watching or something,” Deidara explained. Now that their business was done, he was much more talkative. “Anyway, a while ago, Root was trying to take control of the streets by running through anyone who stood in their way. Those bastards seemed to pop up outta nowhere, like one day they didn’t exist and the next they were suddenly there, shootin’ everyone and takin’ no names. There are rumors that they were a group from Anbu who split off and eventually started fighting with ‘em, but no one seems totally sure. For whatever reason, Root took special interest in Daybreak, which was in its early days back then, and they clashed a couple times. That lady Yugito and some of the original Daybreak members knew each other, Yahiko best of all, and eventually she betrayed ‘em to Root, probably to save her own hide. She also has some pretty good connections to the Underground, same as us. Doesn’t do much herself, but if she could be pushed once to spill, she could be pushed again, and her being a weak link could be our downfall. Konan finally got good intel on where she’d be. I like shooting, someone needed to be shot, it all worked out in the end.”

Naruto tried not to throw up for the second time that day. He walked a little faster to be shoulder-to-shoulder with Deidara. “Yahiko… so he was good friends with Konan and Nagato?”

“The best, apparently. Them three started Daybreak, about eight years ago, mhm. A lot of the original members were killed in a shootout with Root about five years ago, including Yahiko, I joined just after that, along with most of the current guys. Except Itachi, that asshole was already here.”  
Naruto would bet anything that the room he slept in last night belonged to Yahiko. The way Konan had acted… Naruto brushed the accumulated snow off his shoulders, then absentmindedly did the same to Deidara’s shoulder and arm, ignoring the strange look it earned him. “Itachi… scares me,” Naruto admitted.

“You’d have to be braindead if he didn’t.”

They returned to the house in silence. In the distance, Naruto recognized a faint whirring sound as police sirens.

H – O – M – E

Sakura stared out the window at the falling snow. She was from the north, so snow was familiar to her, but she wasn’t actually looking at the snow. _I wonder where Naruto is. His coat didn’t look nearly warm enough for winter. Does he have a place to go?_

The class was biology; the lesson, DNA replication and transportation. Sakura knew it all already.

She rolled her pencil between her thumb and forefinger, turning to look at Sasuke, who sat across the room from her. He was watching the teacher lecture with a bored expression, but took notes where he needed. They talked every so often, but she could tell that Sasuke really preferred to be alone. She felt bad when girls kept swamping him with date requests and small-talk.

At lunch yesterday, she’d been surprised when Sasuke sat down beside her. “To avoid the harpies,” he explained. She had been sitting across from her new friend Ino, who shared art class with her. Ino had looked at Sakura like she’d grown a second head and seemed about to pounce on Sasuke, but Sakura distracted her with a question about where to get the best shoes in Konoha. That had kept Ino occupied the rest of the hour.

Sakura noticed the people around her standing up and leaving. _Must’ve missed the bell._

As she packed up her stuff, Sasuke came over and said without preamble “Do you have plans tonight?”

Sakura froze. _Holy shit, is he asking me on a date?!_ Her parents usually worked until dinner, and she could easily call them and tell them not to wait for her. _Keep it cool, Sakura_. “Uh, no, nothing in particular. Why?”

“I was wondering if you wanted to study. Memorization is difficult for me and you seem good at biology.”

A study date then. But why was he asking her when there were countless other more attractive people in their class? _‘Cause they aren’t smarter than you! He wants the intellectual best. Also you’re too self-conscious to try to drape yourself over him like some other people._ “I’d be happy to help, Sasuke!”

“Good. Meet at my locker after school. It’s 1085.” And with that, he left.

_Score!_

The rest of the day passed quickly. As usual, she spent the first ten minutes of every class reading the day’s chapters from the book, then daydreamed the rest of the time. She supposed having such a photographic memory should be a blessing, but it often left her bored and feeling estranged from the other students. When practice problems were handed out in the middle of math class, she whizzed through them in just under seven minutes. The teacher came by and asked her why she wasn’t working, and didn’t seem to believe her when she said she was already finished. At least, until he checked her packet. His surprise was not new to Sakura, neither was his simple nod of acknowledgement before he moved on. She didn’t want a nod, she wanted a challenge! She never had a teacher ask if she wanted something more to work on, always just that brief moment of praise before leaving her to wallow for thirty minutes in boredom while the rest of the class struggled with what she considered to be simple differential equations.  
“Mr. Mizuki, do you have any more problems I could work on?” she interjected as he turned away.

“There’s always more problems in the book, Miss Haruno,” was all he said. She’d already done all the problems in the book.

Sakura huffed and rested her face in her hand, resorting to crude doodles along the edges of her notebook. How disappointing.

Since she found herself with some free time, she pulled out her phone and texted her mom. Normally her mom dropped her off in the morning and picked her up after school, so Sakura needed to let her know that she was going to Sasuke’s.

The end of the school day was a relief to her. She quickly gathered what she needed from her locker and went to meet Sasuke.

She was excited to hang out with him and knew that more than a few girls in her class would be green with envy if, or when, they find out about it. But Sakura didn’t really care. In fact, let those shallow girls have their shallow emotions. She would be too busy hanging out with the coolest guy in the school.

But she also wondered about Sasuke’s own emotions. She’d heard about his tragic past from Ino, the murder of his family by his own brother. Obviously he was a little messed up from that, who wouldn’t be, but it seemed to Sakura that isolating himself would just make it hurt worse. There was an abundance of people that would leap at the chance to get to know Sasuke and hang out with him, so why did he just ignore them all?

She stopped to fill her water bottle at a drinking fountain.

Maybe Sasuke was afraid of getting close to people. Of getting hurt again. _What a miserable, lonely way to live_.

Sakura’s excitement was dulled into solemn contemplation as she counted the locker numbers. Sasuke was putting on his coat when Sakura arrived.

“Hey Sasuke. Learn anything interesting today?” She could have smacked herself. What an uncool thing to say.

“Hm. Apparently dark chocolate has twelve milligrams of caffeine.”

Sakura knew that already but didn’t say so. “So instead of coffee, you can just eat eight chocolate bars! Seems like a better deal to me, coffee is so bitter.”

“Sometimes bitter is good.”

Damn his poetic cynicism. Sakura couldn’t really think of anything witty to say, so she readjusted her bag strap. She noticed a couple people glancing their way as they passed, probably curious about who Sasuke was suddenly warming up to— well, warming up is relative when the starting point is ice cold.

“Good?” Sasuke finished putting his backpack on and apparently didn’t want to stand around while she stared into the flowing crowds of people.

“Ah, yeah! Let’s go.”

They followed the stream of people out the main doors and walked straight past the couple of shabby school buses, around the tiny parking lot. Sakura half-expected there to be some sort of mysterious long black car waiting to whisk them away to whatever mansion Sasuke lived in, but they kept walking. It was in the same general direction as the townhouse her parents had gotten.

“Do you live close by?” she asked, blinking snowflakes out of her eyes.

“A couple blocks.”

 _He invites me to hang out with him and sticks to these lame one sentence answers. Is he purposefully being a dick or is he just awkward?_ Sakura almost had to laugh at that. Sasuke was the opposite of awkward, unflappable and enigmatic. Maybe he was teasing her? She randomly thought of what she could have said earlier in response to his dumb ‘bitter is good’ comment: because it makes everything else taste that much sweeter!

Too bad she was ten minutes too late.

Sasuke observed his breath billowing around him. “You seem deep in thought.”

 _Oh shit, he probably thinks I’m solving the Millennium Prize Problems or something_. “I was just thinking about… Naruto.” That was not what she was expecting.

Apparently Sasuke wasn’t either, because he paused tellingly. “What about him?”

They stopped at a red crosswalk sign, observing the cars skidding around on the new slush as the drivers tried to get used to winter driving again.

“I meant to invite him to dinner. But I went back to the park every day after school and I never saw him again. I wonder what happened to him.”

“Maybe he got hit by a car.”

“ _Sasuke!_ That’s not even funny!”

“It wasn’t a joke, just a hypothesis.”

“Hypotheses are based on existing observations.”

“Well he _did_ walk right in front of my bike,” Sasuke pointed out. The walk sign came on and they crossed the street, watching out for sliding cars.

“Oh. Well still. It’s just sad to think about. But I’m sure if he went missing like that, his family would notice.”

“…what makes you think he has a family?”  
Sakura blinked confusedly. “What do you mean? He said he doesn’t go to school, but surely that doesn’t insinuate he’s an orphan.”

Sasuke replied gravely, “after you’ve lived in Konoha for a while, you’ll see that most kids on the street are alone.”  
“How does that happen?” she asked in a small voice.

Sasuke sighed. “Either the parents didn’t want them and dumped them off eventually, or they were killed. Police never seem to care for the whole ‘ask questions first, shoot later’ thing, and the gang activity here is… suffocating.”

Sakura herself hadn’t noticed anything too telling in her first couple week in Konoha, besides the hold-up at the grocery store. And the theft of those prized museum artifacts. She supposed she was lucky her parents had been able to afford a townhouse in the nicer part of the city; and normally her mom drove her to and from school, so she didn’t have to deal with walking alone through the city laden with book bags.

“I guess I haven’t seen anything too bad yet.”

They turned another corner, and Sakura realized the neighborhood was quickly moving away from dingy apartments, towards multistory houses with gardens and gates. The small yards were covering in a growing layer of fluffy snow that couldn’t quite cover the muted colors of withering flowers. Nice cars were parked in the driveways.

“Then you’re lucky,” Sasuke said, bringing Sakura back to their conversation. “It’s obvious Naruto’s family was ripped apart by gang violence.”  
“How can you be so sure?”  
“Because we’re the same.”

Sakura wanted to slap herself but at the same time was morbidly curious. “Your… brother?”

Sasuke stopped in front of a pale gray house with a dark roof but made no move to walk to the unusually tall deep red front door. He just stared at it, hand on his bag strap, silent. Sakura wondered if he was having some sort traumatic flash back. She opened her mouth to say something, but wasn’t sure what she could do to rewind their conversation and avoid the sensitive topic. There were a couple people walking on the street; she thought about calling out to them, asking for help. Instead she hesitantly laid a cold hand on Sasuke’s upper arm, his wool jacket soft beneath her white fingers.

“Is this one yours?” she asked, referring to the house.

“The door used to be white.”

“Ah.” Sakura didn’t like where this was going.

“It’s longer than most doors. My father was very tall. The blood soaked into the wood and my uncle decided that just painting it red would be easier than replacing it.” He turned to Sakura, who was staring at him, gray-faced. Sasuke’s eyes were completely blank, before he suddenly smirked. “I’m messing, it’s always been red.” He walked up the driveway, leaving Sakura with her mouth hanging open.

She scampered after him. “I’m sorry, did you just… make a joke about your family being... about—about their murder?”

Saskue fished his keys out of his pocket. “Ever heard the one about Pagliacci?”

“The depressed clown?” _Ah_.

“Yeah. I was seven when my brother killed my family. It was his initiation task. In some gangs, they throw six pennies on the ground and tell the new guy he has to pick them all up while being kicked and beat to be initiated, but they tell him there’s seven pennies. So he’s crawling around on the ground looking for the last penny while the other guys beat him into unconsciousness. Some guys pick up pennies, some guys gun down their families.”

Sakura felt ill. “Is that a common… initiation task?”

Sasuke shrugged. “No clue. I only know because that’s what Itachi told me when I found him standing over their bodies.

They went inside the house, shutting out the cold behind them.


End file.
